Field & Stream’’s Total Outdoorsman: The Best of Eddie Nickens

The Last Wild Road is a raucous, gripping, sometimes terrifying, often hilarious, and deeply meditative journey through the heart of the outdoors in the modern world. Collected from more than 20 years of hunting and fishing cover stories, columns, and adventure tales written by T. Edward Nickens for Field & Stream, this book is a road trip that takes in a huge sweep of the North American landscape--blackwater rivers in the wilds of eastern North Carolina, deserts and prairies of the American West, remote tundra of northern Canada, and the wildest rivers of Alaska. Along every rutted road and rough trail, with a rod, gun, and pen, Nickens meets unforgettable characters--old French-speaking Cajuns at Louisiana squirrel camps, a one-armed fly-tyer in the ancient Appalachians, Pennsylvania brothers who lost their father in a hunting accident decades ago and return to the scene for a powerful, poignant encounter with history. He explores remote wilderness waters to chase trout and ducks, but finds rich meaning, too, in the familiar and close-to-home: fishing with his children, plumbing the forests of local farms, and butchering deer in his basement as a thanksgiving for the gifts of the outdoors.

When it comes to hunting and fishing, writing often falls into the categories of where-to-go, the how-do-it, and the-what-to-bring. This book embarks on the question of ＂why.＂ Why does the pursuit of game and fish, and the travel to the wild places where they thrive, bring meaning and clarity to living in the modern world? Why do we laugh more, and live more deeply, far from the sidewalk? If you’ve ever felt that way, you’ll find yourself in The Last Wild Road.

Eddie Nickens has written a regular column for Field & Stream magazine for nearly six years, called ＂Total Outdoorsman.＂ It’s a first-person essay that explores the modern expression of hunting and fishing in America. It’s not a how-to, but the dedicated space in the magazine for narrative-driven, creative renderings of why we love the outdoors so passionately. It’s a favorite of readers and the F&S editors. Nickens has been a full-time freelance journalist for 30+ years, published in magazines from Smithsonian to National Geographic Adventure to Men’s Journal. He’s been editor-at-large for Field & Stream, a contributing editor for Garden & Gun, and a contributing editor to Audubon magazine for many years. He’s had tons of awards and ASME Ellie nominations--one win--and his work has been collected in other anthologies including Men’s Journal’s The Great Life, Guys Read: True Stories, Cornbread Nation: The Best of Southern Food Writing and Chicken Soup for the Nature Lover’s Soul. His work has also been published in three Garden & Gun books.