Should the Tent Be Burning Like That?: A Professional Amateur's Guide to the Outdoors

For more than twenty years, Bill Heavey--a three-time National Magazine Award finalist--has staked a claim as one of America's best writers. In feature stories and his Field & Stream column "A Sportsman's Life," as well as other publications, he has taken readers across the country and beyond to experience his triumphs and failures as a suburban dad who happens to love hunting and fishing.

Should the Tent Be Burning Like That? gathers together a wide range of Heavey's best work. He nearly drowns attempting to fish the pond inside the cloverleaf off an Interstate Highway four miles from the White House. He rents and crashes a forty-four-foot houseboat on a river in Florida. On a manic weeklong deer archery hunt in Ohio, he finds it necessary to practice by shooting arrows into his motel room's phonebook (the blunt penetrates all the way to page 358, KITCHEN CABINET--REFACING & REFINISHING). Accompanying a shaggy steelhead fanatic--Mikey, who has no job or fixed address but owns four boats--on a thousand-mile odyssey up and down the California coast in search of fishable water, he comes to see Mikey as a purer soul than almost anyone he has ever met.

Whatever the subject, Heavey's tales are odes to the notion that enthusiasm is more important than skill, and a testament to the enduring power of the natural world. Whether he's hunting mule deer in Montana, draining cash on an overpriced pistol, or ruminating on the joys and agonies of outdoor gear, Heavey always entertains and enlightens with honesty and wit.

Author: Bill Heavey
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Published: 12/05/2017
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.40w x 1.30d
ISBN13: 9780802127105
ISBN10: 080212710X
BISAC Categories:
- Sports & Recreation | Essays
- Humor | Form | Essays
- Sports & Recreation | Outdoor Skills

About the Author
Bill Heavey is an editor-at-large for Field & Stream and the author of three previous books: You're Not Lost if You Can Still See the Truck; If you Didn't Bring Jerky, What Did I Just Eat?; and It's Only Slow Food Until You Try to Eat It. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Men's Journal, Outside, Washington Post, New York Times Magazine, and Los Angeles Times. He lives in Maryland.