On the Edge of the Wild : Passions and Pleasures of a Naturalist

by Stephen J. Bodio

• ISBN13: 9781592281190
• ISBN10: 1592281192
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2003-12-01
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

Steve Bodio has always been on the edge of the wild: hunting since he was young--and eating all that he kills; leaving Boston to travel west, ending up in Montana, then New Mexico; falling entranced with raptors and becoming a falconer; traveling the world for other hints of wildness--in lifestyle, landscape, and food. These thought-provoking essays are broken down into six parts: The Country, Raptors, Sport, One Review, Three Books I Live and Why, and Food and Life. As Bodio writes: "This book is a collage in essays about the kind of life I found worth living so far." Read this book and enter Bodio's life--you'll find it enviable, outrageous, funny, sad, and breathtaking. It is a life that must be touched.

Author Biography

STEPHEN J. BODIO is a full-time writer, an old-fashioned naturalist, and a sportsman. He is the author of a number of highly respected books, including A Rage for Falcons, Querencia, and Aloft. Bodio has been a book review editor for Gray's Sporting Journal ("Bodio's Review") and a resident member at Sterling College's Wildbranch Writing Workshop. His essays and articles have appeared in Smithsonian, Big Sky Journal, Sports Afield, and widely elsewhere. Born and educated in Boston, he has lived in Magdalena, New Mexico, for over twenty years.

Table of Contents

Apologia and Acknowledgments	vii
The Country	1	(34)
Struck with Consequence	3	(12)
Moving to Montana	15	(5)
from Tiger Country	20	(6)
An Unexpected Eagle	26	(9)
Raptors	35	(48)
Eagles	37	(14)
Why I Love Goshawks	51	(6)
The North-of-the-Waste White	57	(6)
Lost Partner	63	(4)
Grouse Camp	67	(16)
Sport	83	(60)
A Canvas, Ever Changing	85	(12)
Home Again	97	(9)
Why Grouse?	106	(6)
My Shotguns	112	(5)
Evolution of a Hunter	117	(4)
Old Dog	121	(5)
A Long Way from Home	126	(8)
The Catfish Heretic	134	(9)
One Review	143	(10)
The Great Debate	145	(8)
Three Books I Love, and Why	153	(22)
T. H. White's The Goshawk	155	(7)
Rob Schultheis's The Hidden West	162	(6)
Gavin Maxwell's Harpoon Venture	168	(7)
Food and Life	175	(2)
Risott': A Letter to John Thorne	177	(4)
Private Reconciliation Chili	181	(4)
Meat	185