fresh air

bright water

Whether his subject is hunting wild

turkey in West Virginia, the opening

of the trout season, the sex life of

oysters, or the sad fate of the heath

hen, Nelson Bryant writes about the

outdoors with humor, authority, and

more than a small touch of the poet.

Readers of his "Wood, Field, and

Stream" column in The New York

Times know that Bryant's writings

provide a refreshing respite from the

frustrations of twentieth-century life.

Some 125 of his best columns are

collected in this volume.

As Bryant writes in his Preface to

this collection, he does not rely on

the "where the fish are biting" ap-

proach. Rather he tries--with great

success--to bring to his readers the

delights of wood, field, and stream,

and to give them memorable glimpses

of such glories as "a mountaintop

trout pond wreathed in mist, of black

ducks flying low against a dark No-

vember sky over a brown salt marsh,

of great, silvery tarpon rolling in the

Caribbean, of red grouse rising above

the purple blooms of Scotland's

heather." Fresh Air, Bright Water is

a book to be cherished by hunters

and fishermen, conservationists, and

nature lovers of all sorts.