Fisherman's Luck and Some Other Uncertain Things

Henry Van Dyke believed that the truest things in life cannot be caught like fish, they must be let go. This graceful collection of essays, written by a Princeton professor and clergyman who would later serve as American ambassador to the Netherlands, uses the art of angling as a lens for examining what we truly seek when we seek recreation. Van Dyke writes with the quiet authority of a man who has cast his line into many waters and reflects on what rises to the surface: patience, solitude, the particular quality of light on a river at dawn, the fellowship of fellow fishermen who understand that the catch itself is secondary to the casting. These are essays for anyone who has ever stood at the water's edge, rod in hand, not really caring whether anything bites. Van Dyke meditates on uncertainty as a feature of existence rather than a flaw, finding in fishing a metaphor for grace, how we must learn to release what we cannot hold, and how the moments of waiting are as full of meaning as the moments of capture.