Drifting the River Growing up Wild in the South

by Mart Baldwin

Book by Baldwin, Mart

175 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[David Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drifting the River: Growing Up Wild in the South by Mart. Baldwin (Wolfhound Press 1999) (917.56) (3796).

This is a delightful little memoir of a young'un who was lucky enough to be raised in the South by outdoorsmen in the first half of the twentieth century.

The boy grew up and earned a PhD in chemistry from UNC, but he never outgrew his love of fishing and hunting. Best of all, he learned the joys of sharing the woods lore which had been taught to him by his father, his grandfathers, and his uncles with the next generation of children in the family: his own sons and grandchildren.

These are gentle tales of family which are exceptionally well-told by author Mart Baldwin. He writes with exactly the right voice for tales such as these.

Baldwin’s account calls to mind the stories of my favorite outdoor writer, the legendary North Carolinian Robert Chester Ruark Jr., who grew up on the Atlantic coast in Wilmington, North Carolina. Robert Ruark wrote the all-time best books ever set to paper about learning to hunt and fish as a youth in his autobiographical tales The Old Man and the Boy (1957) and The Old Man’s Boy Grows Older (1961).

Mart Baldwin did himself proud when he wrote this one.

I purchased a used HB copy in like-new condition for $3.00 from McKay’s on 8/1/22.

My rating: 7.25/10, finished 5/29/23 (3796).

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