Burton Spiller Question

[Dean Romig]

Bill, Spiller was a great writer of sporting literature and most all of it was drawn on his own lifetime experience in the uplands. I was however, quite disillusioned many years ago when I learned that quite a lot of his stories were fictional in nature. This is not to say these things didn't happen with him and his friends but rather, to say that there was a great deal of fiction woven into his stories simply to enhance the often ordinary day spent afield. Bearing this in mind, "Tracy's Sportsman's Lodge" may never have really existed . . . but, then again, it may have and hopefully we will find it.

Oh, and Thanks Dave

[Bill Bolyard]

Dean,

Some years ago I went on a Caribou hunt in Quebec with a bunch of outdoor writers. What a experience, Traditional bows only in an area that white man had never supposedly hunted. The articles they wrote were almost factual. I asked one of them about it later and his reply was " A good story is not necessarily a sequence of fact".

Bill

[Bill Murphy]

Do you mean to imply that Hentracks Hennessy didn't own a .410 Parker with single trigger and beavertail forend? I may sell my collection of Field and Streams, cheap.

[Bill Bolyard]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

Do you mean to imply that Hentracks Hennessy didn't own a .410 Parker with single trigger and beavertail forend? I may sell my collection of Field and Streams, cheap.

Bill,

Hentracks may have been a Man of integrity, I don't know. We use to have another outdoor writer in Michigan that I met, who had the largest collection of outdoor periodicals I have ever seen. He used them regularly to plagiarize articles, how he didn't get caught is beyond me. He would write dead dog articles regularly, the mail he would get from some poor guy who just lost his Dog were in piles around his office. Those that knew him joked about the impending doom of another of his poor hapless imaginary dogs.

Bill

[Bill Murphy]

Well Corey Ford only wrote one Parker .410 article, so I guess it was a true story. Whew!

[CSL]

Dean,
I remember a while back you mentioned Spiller had worked in
the Portsmouth NH Naval Shipyard, do you know what years he
was in Portsmouth, and did he ever mention (in his writings)
shooting Trap at the Portsmouth Gun Club?...

Best, Chris
_________________________________

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Christopher Lien

Dean,
I remember a while back you mentioned Spiller had worked in
the Portsmouth NH Naval Shipyard, do you know what years he
was in Portsmouth, and did he ever mention (in his writings)
shooting Trap at the Portsmouth Gun Club?...

Best, Chris
_________________________________

Hello Chris!

I don't really know the span of years he worker at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard but it was his career employment I believe until his retirement. Writing, raising gladioli, crafting violins, etc. were only creative interests of Spiller's which merely helped to augment his income.
I don't recall Spiller ever mentioning shooting at the Portsmouth Gun Club. There are countless articles he had written for various magazines, not only sporting magazines but other prestigious magazines of the day as well, which I certainly have not had the priviledge to read, but which may (or may not) include anecdotes of such shooting adventures. I'm sure he must have shot a round or two of trap at some time in his shooting days. His books "Drummer in the Woods" and "Fishin' Around" are full of such anecdotal trivia and I really don't remember if he mentioned trap shooting.
I wonder if the boys who regularly shoot at Major Waldron's nearby to Portsmouth ( Pete Lester, Bob Fabian, John Dunkle, Scott and maybe a few others) might know something of Spiller's haunts and shooting practice fields and ranges back in the thirties, forties and maybe even into the fifties.