Jerusalem Creek : Fly Fishing Through Driftless Country

by Ted Leeson

• ISBN13: 9781592283330
• ISBN10: 1592283330
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2004-06-01
• Publisher: The Lyons Press

Summary

Every existence has its pulse points," writes Ted Leeson in this latest book, "those places where life rises somehow closer to the surface and makes itself more keenly felt. Spring creeks have been mine." Jerusalem Creek is an exploration into the unique landscape of the "driftless area" in southwest Wisconsin, "a geography of small concealments"-of coves and hollows, oak groves and shady bends, winding brooks and trout. "It is not a landscape that you hike up, or climb down into, or stand out looking upon; it is one that you slip inside of," and this book presents the view from within. Leeson reflects on waters and people, and the experiences and ideas that shaped his understanding of spring creek country. By turns thoughtful and hilarious, passionate and wry, he journeys into the special charms of small-scale waters and pastoral spaces; the nature of meandering trout streams and fishermen; ruminations on dairy cows, honeybees, and the midwestern character; family and angling companions; Amish farmsteads; the memory of a missing photograph; the equivocal dream of owning a trout stream; the ways in which the past endures in the present. Layered and overlapping, like the limestone geology of driftless country, the meditations in this book cumulatively tell the story of how we create the places we love, and how they in turn create us. Jerusalem Creek is a wise, poignant, and haunting book about those places that remain with us long after we've left them.

Author Biography

Ted Leeson is the author of the widely acclaimed The Habit of Rivers. His essays and articles have appeared in Fly Fisherman, Field & Stream, The Utne Reader, Gray's Sporting Journal, Men's Journal, and regularly in Fly Rod & Reel. He teaches English at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Small Thrills	1	(177)
1 Springs Eternal	15	(20)
2 Driftless	35	(16)
3 Meandering	51	(26)
4 Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear	77	(25)
5 The Land of Milk and Honey	102	(26)
6 Brothers in Arms	128	(20)
7 Certain Specific Days	148	(8)
8 The Heart of the Heartland	156	(10)
9 Some Assembly Required	166	(12)
10 Beating the Bounds	178	(15)
11 Green Thoughts in a Green Shade	193	(16)
12 Simple Gifts	209	(13)
13 The Same River Twice	222	(13)
Afterword: A Workable Deception	235