Internal Landscape, External Reality

About the Book

Internal Landscape, External Reality

The author's adventures afield are told within the framework of personal essays or stories that intertwine action, feeling, and thought. He describes what it means to be an outdoorsman of ordinary means, but one with an extraordinary curiosity about why we do what we do in the pursuit of game and fish. He questions tradition, with logic and a wry humor at times, and pokes fun at fads, rationalization, and sometimes, himself.

Hunting and fishing provide excuse for delightful equipment too, rods and guns and their many accessories, all special for the adventures they make possible and share.

Overall the outdoors is treated as a special place, full of wonderful creatures, fine scenery, and the potential for modest adventures, alone or shared with companions, both human or animal. The impulse to examine a life enriched and defined by the time spent in the outdoors in the pursuit of game and fish, and indoors in the examination of its spoken and unspoken traditions provides the environment.

About the Author

Richard Reitz grew up in western Nebraska on farms and ranches, where he could be hunting as soon as he walked outdoors. At seventeen he left for the University of Colorado, where he earned his baccalaureate degree. He spent his service time as a Navy journalist and was discharged with the job code ?editor?, in time earned a master?s degree from Middlebury College in Vermont, became a college teacher, seasonal National Park Service Ranger Historian, head of a college academic division, and eventually, for most of his collegiate career, director of public relations and publications. He retired early as an emeritus in English, traveled extensively in a motorhome?doing a little hunting and a little fishing?and now with his wife divides the time between Wyoming and Arizona.