Spring/Summer 2000

Hot Off the Press
with James L. Cummins, Jr.

Long Shots from the Flatlands
by Richard Wiman

Richard Wiman, the award-winning author of the outrageously funny outdoor humor book, Tired Tubes and Ten-Speed Turkeys, has done it again. Long Shots from the Flatlands is a compilation of short stories from Mississippi that investigate such unusual events as a submarine hog hunt and pursue such amazing critters as a boat paddle gobble. From light-hearted, knee-slapping tales of learning to drive, to the more serious consideration of the ever popular gun control issue, you will laugh, reminisce and even sit soberly considering the fundamental issues of life at times.

Richard's wonderful stories will make you laugh and will lift your sagging spirits during some of these rainy day Delta blues. While you may learn something about hunting (knowing Richard, this is doubtful and at best and pure accident if it happens), you will surely learn much about human nature, your own included.

Signed and/or personalized copies of either title may be ordered from Greasy Bayou Publishing Company, P.O. Box 73, Belzoni, MS 39038. Send $17.95 plus $2.50 shipping and handling for one book, $1.00 for each additional book. Mississippi residents must add 7% sales tax to the price of the books.

Big Woods
by William Faulkner

Big Woods is one of those books that I have managed to send several of my friends. Jim Range, a wildlife biologist and former Chief of Staff for Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, and Theodore Roosevelt IV are two such recipients.

Big Woods is a collection of Faulkner's best hunting stories. An avid hunter as well as one of America's greatest writers, Faulkner spent many days hunting throughout Mississippi. Some of my favorite hunting stories are "The Bear," as well as "The Old People," "A Bear Hunt" and "Race at Morning." Together, these four stories are considered to be the finest hunting stories ever written. Each is introduced with a prelude that weaves these tales together into a modern American classic.

In Big Woods, Faulkner creates a variety of unforgettable characters: Sam Fathers, the Indian guide and his dogs, Old Ben and Lion; the young boy; and Major de Spain, one of my favorite characters. The old hunter said, "Soon we will enter the woods. It is not new to me, since I have been doing it each November for over seventy years...In the old days we came in wagons and pitch a camp in the rain...and rise at daylight the next morning and hunt...Now a man has to drive two hundred miles to find enough woods to harbor game worth hunting."

Brett Smith, one of today's foremost sporting artists, has created six full-page etchings especially for this edition. Noted author and friend, Jim Casada, has written a special introduction.

This book, a classic collection of sporting literature, belongs in the library of every Mississippi sportsman. Big Woods was published in 1955. It has long been out of print and a copy of the book commands up to $175 if you can find one. We are honored that a special edition of Big Woods is now available at local bookstores. In fact, 1,200 copies were bound in rich cloth on 70-pound acid-free paper, with a silk ribbon and handsome slipcase.