A Leaf from French Eddy — Ben H. Lampman

In A Leaf from French Eddy, Ben Hur Lampman dips into life and nature to offer a book as clear, refreshing, and beautiful as a cupped handful of water from a rushing trout stream. Outwardly about fish, it is really about much, in the same way that Izaak Walton's "The Compleat Angler" is. A Leaf from French Eddy surges with a lusty joy in the fact of being alive in the present, at the very moment in which, in the author's words, "the events of yesterday and the necessities of tomorrow are singularly dwarfed in importance". All anglers will recognize something of themselves in Lampman's tales of guileful, graceful fish and those who are obsessed with their capture. but the nimbus of meaning which he brings to the act of fishing embraces everyone who takes up this book. Ben Hur Lampman (1886 - 1954) was a U.S. newspaper editor, essayist, short story writer, and poet. He was a longtime editor at The Oregonian in Portland, Oregon, and he served as Poet Laureate of Oregon from 1951 until his death. His stories and essays also appeared in national magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post. Some of his essays about life in Portland were collected in his 1942 book At the End of the Car Line. In 1943 he won an O. Henry Award for his short story "Blinker Was a Good Dog" which originally appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. Some of his papers and manuscripts are now in the collection of the library of the University of Oregon. Others reside at Lewis and Clark College and the Oregon Historical Society. He also wrote many nature essays in The Oregonian. The collection in this book are drawn from these. The first edition of this book - privately published - rapidly sold out, but its reputation has grown and spread through world of mouth.