My Secret Fishing Life

by Nick Lyons, Mari Lyons (Illustrator)

Nick Lyons has long been acclaimed as one of our preeminent fishing writers, praised for his great stories, philosophical and literary insights, self-deprecating humor, and ability to capture the passion that drives people to stand for hours at a time in a river, often in vain. My Secret Fishing Life is his most personal collection, an intimate look back at his own life and career as an angler, publisher, husband, father, and English professor. The capstone to an impressive career, this book belongs on the shelf of anyone who loves fishing.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.

Nick Lyons taught English at the University of Michigan prior to accepting a position at the Hunter College of the City University of New York in 1961. He remained on the faculty of CUNY until 1988. He also worked as the executive editor of Crown Publishers from 1964-1974. An avid fisherman, Lyons found a way to combine his avocation and profession in 1977 when he created his first publishing company, Nick Lyons Books, eventually Lyons Press. It earned the reputation as one of the premier publishers of fishing books, but the company also printed works on nature, camping, adventure, gardening, woodworking, travel, the sea, history, food and wine, art and reference, hunting, general sport, and a few fiction titles. In 1999, Tony Lyons, Nick's son, took over the firm which was acquired by Globe Pequot Press in 2001. As well as being a book publisher Nick Lyons is a prolific writer and has produced several books on fly fishing. He has written introductions, forewords and prefaces for many Lyons Press books and also had a feature column of essays named the "Seasonable Angler" in Fly Fisherman Magazine for many years. Lyons has written articles for many other periodicals including Field & Stream and the New York Times, and several anthologies of these essays have been published.

Reviews

[H R Koelling]

I love Nick Lyons' books, but this one isn't like his others. It starts off with several fishing stories, but the last half of the book is an autobiography of his life as, mainly, an editor and publisher. There's also a lengthy section about his wife's artwork. I'm not a big fan of Mari's artwork, but Nick gushes over it and seems a little upset that no one else recognizes his wife's talents and abilities.

I liked reading about Nick's life as a publisher/editor, and his opinions on art, but I really would have preferred to read more fishing stories.