Search results for ""Author Herb Curtis""

Luther Corhern, Miramichi guide and keeper of Cavender Bill's Salmon Camp log, never met a fisherman in his life (other than Stan Tuney) who would tell you a lie. It's a good thing, too — you'd have a job on your hands if you had to sort fact from fiction in Lute's chronicles. Here's the situation: a rich American has bought the old Cavender place and turned it into a fishing camp. Now known as Cavender Bill, he takes in fellow American "sports" as guests, hiring Lute and his friends as guides. Cav thinks the sports would enjoy a log: a fishing record embellished with guides' stories. Lute, with his grade six education, is the natural choice to man the Underwood Deluxe. Now, Lute is a dreamer, and it would be fair to say that Luther Corhern's Salmon Camp Chronicles strays somewhat from its original purpose. It contains stories about Lute's friends Nean "short for Neanderthal" Kooglin, Elvis "formerly Hogarth" Glasby, Lindon Tucker, and lying Stan Tuney. Dryfly Ramsey, Shadrack Nash, and Kid and Corry Lauder show up, too. But Lute's mind ranges in all directions, over topics such as a computer that sends letters from the future, the curative power of mackerel tied to the feet, golf, and Christmas. The weather, however, isn't what it used to be. According to Elvis, "She used to be a lot colder when we were operatin' under Fahrenheit. Old Celsius don't seem to have the bite in it, so it don't." But every topic leads Lute back to the salmon and to the mystical river that's home to man and fish alike.

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Corry Quinn starts off on the wrong foot. When he's very small, his mother dies. Then his feckless father, heading down the road from his Miramichi village to Toronto, deposits Corry with his Uncle Kid. Now, this is a pretty good arrangement: Kid knows full well that Corry's father will never come back to Silver Rapids, and he and Corry get along fine. But Corry is a sad young fellow. One winter day, angry and miserable, he sticks his tongue to an icy railroad spike. By the time the infection clears up and he gets out of hospital, half his tongue is gone, and he will never talk properly again. Strangely enough, his accident improves his life. He and Kid understand each other well, Kid talking, Corry writing notes. Kid is an ageing hippie with a heart of gold and a shed full of home-grown weed. This, not Kid's tiny fishing gear shop, supports the two of them. Eventually, after many tragicomic adventures involving girls, fish, and the elusive eastern cougar, both Kid and Corry grow up. Together they find simple yet cunning ways to turn their chub hole into a magical salmon pool, the shed into a sporting camp, Kid into an outfitter, and Corry into a man with a voice.

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Winner, Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction AwardShortlisted, Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Canada and the CaribbeanThe Last Tasmanian has reaped more national and international recognition than any other novel by Herb Curtis. First published in 1991, it has remained in print continuously in its original edition and later in The Brennen Siding Trilogy. Now it's available again as a separate volume in the GLE Library Series. Brennen Siding, a hamlet on a small tributary of the famous Miramichi River, is home to an unforgettable crew — Shadrack Nash and his friend Dryfly Ramsey; Dry's mother, the homely, destitute Shirley, and Nutbeam, the big-eared hermit she marries; the American sports who come to the Cabbage Island Salmon Club to fish; and, above all, Hilda Porter, the elderly schoolteacher who treasures the story of Trucanini, the last Tasmanian on earth. Hilda herself is the last of the Porters, and, amid the invasion of TV, Elvis, and rich Americans, Shad and Dry may be the last true natives of Brennen Siding.

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The complete Brennen Siding Trilogy is now available in a single volume. Brennen Siding, a hamlet on a small tributary of the famous Miramichi River, is home to an unforgettable crew — Dryfly and Palidin Ramsey and Dry's friend Shadrack Nash; Shirley Ramsey, Dry and Pal's homely, destitute mother, and Nutbeam, the floppy-eared hermit she marries; the American sports who come to the Cabbage Island Salmon Club to fish; and the "lads" who guide them. Dry, Shad and Pal, young teenagers in The Americans Are Coming, make some headway into maturity in The Last Tasmanian. By the end of The Lone Angler, when Palidin realizes what will happen to his beloved Atlantic salmon if he sells his secret of catching a fish on every cast, all three have launched themselves into adulthood. The boys' adventures gently lead the reader to reflect on the nature of humans and the place of humans in nature. Running through it all is the magical, mysterious river and the legendary Atlantic salmon. The Last Tasmanian won the 1992 Thomas Raddall Award and was a finalist for a Commonwealth Book Prize. The Americans Are Coming is a successful stage play.

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An invasion? For teenagers Dryfly Ramsey and Shadrack Nash, poor and ignorant in the world's terms but rich in the lore of the magical Miramichi, the annual influx of American anglers, with their money, fishing gear, and thirst for salmon seems like one, and it sets the stage for action. A cast of quirky, unforgettable characters — Nutbeam, a large-nosed, floppy-eared hermit; Shirley, Brennan Siding's toothless postmistress and Ramsey family matriarch; and Buck, who appears once a year to sire another child — conspire to capture the imagination in Herb Curtis's now classic novel. And what of the Whooper, that mystical beast whose cries result in amazingly tall tales? In The Americans Are Coming, the voices of Brennan Siding ring out in the rich vernacular of New Brunswick's Miramichi region, a world immersed in myth, folklore, and the sulpherous belch of a nearby pulp mill, and where ghosts and demons are as real as the Lone Ranger or the spring run of gaspereaux. With a new afterword by David Adams Richards.

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