This book is personal for me because Jim Harrison was one of my favorite writers for a long time. He identified as a poet, but became a prolific sports writer and master of the novella. One of the main influences on his life was the writer Thomas McGuane, who got Harrison involved in fly fishing in Key West, the enclave of artist and writers in Livingston, Montana, and through his screenwriting with the film industry. Harrison began sports writing on bird hunting and fishing for Sports Illustrated and then Esquire magazine. Harrison became close friends with Jack Nicholson, and that relationship provided connections and financial support that parlayed Harrison’s work into film adaptations. The most well known of his work is Legends of the Fall, which portrays a love story where one brother brings his girl friend home to visit in Montana and she falls hard for his more handsome brother who abandons her. Harrison was known for being stubborn and struggled with severe bouts of depression fed by his alcoholism. He gained a reputation as a gourmand which impacted his health due to his heavy wine drinking and a diet that resulted in gout and diabetes. He would not have lived his life any other way, and was very much a writer’s writer and a macho personality to the maximum. Part of his depression was linked to his view of himself as an artist, and he despaired becoming commercial even though his friends did not appreciate his viewpoint of his (and their own) financial success. The other factor was being blinded in one eye as a child, and he was self conscious about his blindness. He could not manage money or file his taxes, financially support his children or stay loyal to his wife, and much of his success was due to his friends’ generosity. Harrison reminds me a great dealof the writer Walter Benjamin where he always seemed to get in his own way.