Overview

An anthology and tribute to a unique independent publisher, Clark City Press. In 1987, the painter and author and fly fisherman Russell Chatham, renowned for his stunning landscape paintings and his appetite for life, decided to take control of his own career by creating a publishing house in Livingston, Montana. As one does, at least if they are Russell Chatham. ""Control"" was probably the wrong concept-for the next five years, Clark City Press was the chaotic home of beautifully produced works by an eclectic, talented collection of writers and artists, many of them given a painting in lieu of a publishing advance. What began as an effort to publish Chatham's own work and that of his friends (a large and varied group) in elegant trade paperbacks morphed into something grander and more wayward. Chatham could talk almost anyone into anything, and before the press imploded, all sorts of people said yes: Barry Gifford signed on for A Good Man to Know, a fictionalized memoir about his gangster father, Jim Harrison traded paintings for The Theory & Practice of Rivers and Just Before Dark, and Rick Bass wrote about the first wolves to resettle the continental United States in The Ninemile Wolves. Clark City Press published Thomas McGuane on fishing and memory, Guy de la Valdene on hunting woodcock, Richard Hugo's only mystery, James Crumley's short stories, and Peter Stackpole's Life photos from the golden age of Hollywood. In A River Dream, Clark City's former editor, novelist Jamie Harrison, has collected some of the best of the press's prose, art, and poetry, in a glorious celebration of a small and lost world.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jamie Harrison
Publisher:   David R. Godine Publisher Inc
Imprint:   David R. Godine Publisher Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.80cm
ISBN:  

9781567927993

ISBN 10:   1567927998
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   18 December 2025
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

PREFACE Jamie Harrison NONFICTION Thomas McGuane “Chatham v. the Facts” from Russell Chatham and “Casting on a Sea of Memories” from Silent Seasons: Twenty-one Fishing Stories Guy de la Valdène Chapter from Making Game: An Essay on Woodcock Russell Chatham “Hard as a Rock” from The Angler’s Coast and “Eating Around” from Dark Waters: Essays, Stories, and Articles William Hjortsberg “The Fly Shop” from Silent Seasons: Twenty-one Fishing Stories Stephen Bodio Chapter from Querencia Rick Bass Chapter from The Ninemile Wolves Jim Harrison “Hunger, Real and Unreal” and “Night Walking” from Just Before Dark: Collected Nonfiction POEMS & FICTION Jim Harrison “Homily,” “Porpoise,” and “Counting Birds” from The Theory & Practice of Rivers and New Poems Keith Wilson “XIV: Waterfront Bars,” “CXXII: A School of Small Fish,” and “CXXIII: The Trey of Spades” from Graves Registry Greg Keeler “Salmon Fly Hatch on the Henry’s Fork” and “The Ghost of Richard Brautigan on Trail Creek” from Epiphany at Goofy’s Gas Dan Gerber “Why I Don’t Take Naps in the Afternoon” from A Last Bridge Home: New and Selected Poems, chapter from A Voice from the River, and “Yard Sale” from Grass Fires Richard Currey Chapter from Crossing Over: The Vietnam Stories Barry Gifford “My Mother’s People from A Good Man to Know: A Semi-Documentary Fictional Memoir and chapter from New Mysteries of Paris Richard Hugo Chapter from Death and the Good Life James Crumley The Way of the Road Chapter from The Muddy Fork & Other Things: Short Stories and Nonfiction ART & MISCELLANY Stephen Collector Excerpt from Law of the Range: Portraits of Old-Time Brand Inspectors Peter Stackpole Excerpt from Peter Stackpole: Life in Hollywood, 1936–1952 Diana Guest Jim Harrison’s introductory essay to Stonecarver THE LAST CATALOGUE Red & Blue Days by Peter Matthiesen Sworn Before Cranes by Merrill Gilfillan The Massacre at Sand Creek by Bruce Cutler Go by Go by Jon A. Jackson

Reviews

“Small presses often take up the creative space abandoned by mainstream houses imperiled by overhead, algorithms and the hope that previous best sellers will give birth to new ones resembling their parents. Readers needing fresher stuff will turn to a place like Russ Chatham's Clark City Press and its abundant rewards.” —Thomas McGuane, author of The Longest Silence: A Life In Fishing “Dan Gerber, Tom McGuane and Jim Harrison are among the great writers represented in this anthology who gave us the lovely books that came out of Livingston, Montana’s Clark City Press during its brief but uncannily artful and productive existence. Here edited in the capable and caring hands of Jamie Harrison and punctuated with Russell Chatham’s iconic illustrations, Godine now gives us these treasures anew.” —Richard Howorth, Square Books

“Dan Gerber, Tom McGuane and Jim Harrison are among the great writers represented in this anthology who gave us the lovely books that came out of Livingston, Montana’s Clark City Press during its brief but uncannily artful and productive existence. Here edited in the capable and caring hands of Jamie Harrison and punctuated with Russell Chatham’s trademark illustrations, Godine now gives us these treasures anew.” —Richard Howorth, Square Books

“Dan Gerber, Tom McGuane and Jim Harrison are among the great writers represented in this anthology who gave us the lovely books that came out of Livingston, Montana’s Clark City Press during its brief but uncannily artful and productive existence. Here edited in the capable and caring hands of Jamie Harrison and punctuated with Russell Chatham’s iconic illustrations, Godine now gives us these treasures anew.” —Richard Howorth, Square Books

Author Information

Jamie Harrison became the editor at the Clark City Press in 1987 and has now lived in Montana for more than thirty years. Her work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and other publications. She is the author of seven novels, including The Center of Everything, The Widow Nash, and the critically acclaimed Jules Clement series. Ms. Harrison is the recipient of the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association ""Reading the West"" Award and was a finalist for the High Plains Book Award.

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