Nature Book Reader June 2020 - Flipbook - Page 106
A Nature Book Reader
DAVID PROFUMO
David Profumo writes the Reel Life column for Country Life magazine
Salt Water Fishing by Van Campen Heilner
‘Writing is a form of living,’
observed Arthur Ransome,
and few other angling
authors exemplify this
more powerfully than the
American Van Campen
Heilner, a stylish young
plutocrat and naturalist
(and protégé of dentistturned-bestseller Zane
Grey) who pioneered and
eulogised fishing the salt in
those golden years between
the Wars. An explorer and
field rep. for the American
Museum of Natural History,
Van’s inherited mining
fortune allowed him to
travel widely, and wrote
with wit and lyricism about
everywhere from Alaska to
Peru. At Bimini before Papa
glamorised it, he was also a
prominent member of the
Catalina Tuna Club, and was
an early exponent of wildlife
cinematography. His book
106
was a runaway success,
partly for its descriptions
of high living. During one
early morning broadcast
he vomited over the
microphone; the interviewer
rapidly improvised, ‘That’s
right, Van. The barracuda
may be faster in the dash,
but he can’t keep up with the
bonefish over a quarter-mile
course.’ Inimitable.
Further Reading
Akenfield: Portrait
of an English Village
by Ronald Blythe
At The Tail
of The Weir
by Patrick R. Chalmers
