Points North: Bookshelf Adventure Leads to Grim Discovery

As part of a late winter painting project, I spent last weekend removing and cleaning books from one of two floor-to-ceiling bookcases in our home. A life-long bookworm, I also inherited book collections from my grandfather and father. My bookshelves contain hundreds of volumes, including some dating to the 1800s.

I started in the fishing section, which fills several shelves. Most of the fishing books are about fly-fishing, a sport which has produced more literature over the centuries than any other outdoor pursuit. My collection doesn’t go back that far, but it contains a number of well-read titles, including a first edition copy of Trout Madness by the late John Voelker, and a number of his other works. Voelker, an Upper Peninsula native who wrote under pen name Robert Traver, is considered the dean of American fishing writers.