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

The popular Field and Stream columnist shares the many joys—and even more numerous pains—of his hilarious outdoor antics in this essay collection.

For more than twenty years, Bill Heavey—a three-time National Magazine Award finalist—has staked a claim as one of America’s best sportswriters. In his Field & Stream column, “A Sportsman’s Life,” and feature stories for that magazine and others, he takes readers across the country and beyond to experience his triumphs and failures as a suburban dad who happens to love hunting and fishing.

This new collection gathers 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 almost destroys a houseboat on a river in Florida and bravely buys pantyhose to save his legs on a long horseback ride into the Wyoming mountains. 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’s tales are odes to the notion that enthusiasm is more important than skill.

“Readers don’t have to hunt or fish to appreciate Mr. Heavey’s essays, which . . . are more complicated than they first appear. The title of his book evokes the knee-slapping comedy of the campfire, a promise that his peculiar brand of farce frequently fulfills. But he also displays a gift for the sublime.” —Wall Street Journal