Bird Dog Days, Wingshooting Ways

Book excerpt: An expanded edition of Rutledge's stories on game-bird hunting and devoted canine companions Archibald Rutledge has long been recognized as one of the finest sporting scribes this country has ever produced. A prolific writer who specialized in stories on nature and hunting, over the course of a long and prolific career Rutledge produced more than fifty books of poetry and prose, held the position of South Carolina's poet laureate for thirty-three years, and garnered numerous honorary degrees and prizes for his writings. In this revised and expanded edition of Bird Dog Days, Wingshooting Ways, noted outdoor writer Jim Casada draws together Rutledge's stories on the southern heartland, deer hunting, turkey hunting, and Carolina Christmas hunts and traditions. This collection, first published in 1998, turns to Rutledge's writings on two subjects near and dear to his heart that he understood with an intimacy growing out of a lifetime of experience—upland bird hunting and hunting dogs. Its contents range from delightful tales of quail and grouse hunts to pieces on special dogs and some of their traits. Bird Dog Days, Wingshooting Ways also includes a long fictional piece, "The Odyssey of Bolio," which shows that Rutledge's literary mastery extended beyond simple tales for outdoorsmen.