Even readers who have never wetted a fishing fly, let alone tied one, will find something new, laudable and laughable in James White’s newest book, Gilgames to Gierach: Four Thousand Years of Fishing, Fish and Water Stories. The book traces themes of man’s preoccupation with and life-sustaining interest in fishing, an unusual angle in literature from ancient to modern times. Dating many of the past titles but deferring from chronological organization, White assembles his selections by literary genre and intent, filling 12 different phyla with summaries, retelling and lists of appropriate titles related to his themes. He uses the alliterative and convenient names in his titles to bracket the thousands of years he has investigated.

James W. White

The Epic of Gilgamesh, the work with which he begins, may spawn memories of Humanities 101 for many readers, often unfamiliar with the epic itself. Helpfully, White summarizes the myth and begins. Between Gilgamesh and current fly-fishing expert and renowned author John Gierach, who died in 2024 and is honored in the title of the book, lie more than 300 titles for readers’ further exploration. Many classic literary friends appear, including the Odyssey, Moby Dick and Thoreau’s Walden. But readers will also meet Ovid’s Halieutica or the Art of Love; Ireland’s folktale of ‘The Selkie Bride;” the Japanese “Story of Urashima Taro;” and fables of Aesop, Grimm and Arthur Ransom’s Old Peter’s Russian Tales. Afficionados will appreciate a listing of uses for the bewildering number of flies and a vocabulary of literally dozens of clever and complicated names. (See page 198.)

Not to be omitted are Biblical and Saintly stories including tales from Genesis  and the creation stories, Noah and the flood, Jonah and the Whale, Leviathan, Apocrypha and the Book of Luke’s “fishers of men.” The Assyrians’ flood tale, Pinocchio’s watery adventure and St. Francis of Assisi’s sea journey from 1219 are followed by centuries of Spanish and Portuguese sailors’ watery tales and that of the Pilgrims’ safe delivery to North America.

In White’s comfortable, almost conversational style, readers discover excellent sources of fishing tales, even his own, but also the voices of many other fine writers: Brendan the Navigator, Dame Juliana Berners, Shakespeare, Melville, Yeats, Isaak Walton, Jimmy Carter, Hemingway, Rodrick Haig-Brown, Norman Maclean, as well as John Gierach. With more than 100 “how-to” books on his personal shelf, White culled plenty of material for his efforts.

Nor did he neglect films, mysteries, publications, nursery rhymes, musicals, poetry and even jokes. (I am still smiling about one myself.) Captains Courageous, Jaws, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Titanic, On Golden Pond, Salmon Fishing in Yemen as well as many other films made from novels appear. Novels fill the bill, including Peter Heller’s The River, Death on a Cold Hearted River by Mark McGarity and Murder in Cuba by Dianne Harman, leading readers into newer territory. In many ways, this is a review of a reviewer, because White has made it very simple to follow his fishing line floating through literature, evaluating and developing more than accurate footnotes and an impressive bibliography.

White, a Colorado resident familiar with many Western rivers but fisher of a world of waters, is the minister emeritus of Colorado Springs’ First Congregational Church and a retired fishing guide for outfitter Anglers’ Covey. Readers will be impressed not only with his work but also the sheer number of fishing buddies and experiences piscine.

Why his lifetime interest? White lets John Voelker, former Michigan Supreme Court Justice, explain from his book Trout Madness. ”I fish because I love to. Because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful … because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed, or impressed by power and only respond to quietude and humility, and endless patience … the other concerns of men are equally unimportant and not nearly so much fun.”