The Search for the Genuine

The first general nonfiction title in thirty years from a giant of American letters, The Search for the Genuine is a sparkling, definitive collection of Jim Harrison's essays and journalism—some never before published

New York Times–bestselling author Jim Harrison (1937–2016) was a writerwith a poet’s economy of style and a trencherman’s appetites. Praised as a“national treasure” (Chicago Tribune) and published in twenty-seven languages, he was one ofthis country’s most beloved and critically acclaimed authors. Best known forhis poetry and fiction such as Legends of theFall, Dalva, and Returningto Earth, Harrison was also a prolificnonfiction writer, with columns running in SportsIllustrated and Esquire,and work in Outside, Field & Stream, and others. The first collection of Harrison’s generalnonfiction in thirty years, TheSearch for the Genuine is asparkling, definitive volume of essays and journalism—from the near-classic tothe never-published.

With his trademark ribald humor,compassion, and full-throated zest for life, TheSearch for the Genuine paystribute to writers from Bukowski to Neruda to Peter Matthiessen, and examinesthe distance between literary reputation and the work itself; he attainssomething like satori in the field hunting grouse; he reports on Yellowstonefor the park’s hundredth anniversary, when he was merely a tourist to the partof Montana he would eventually call home; he takes to the open sea in pursuitof roosterfish, marlin, tarpon, and, once, to observe a scientific missiontagging sharks; he delivers a heartbreaking essay on life—and, for thoseattempting to cross in the ever-more dangerous gaps, death—on the US-Mexicoborder. Always he comes back to the spirit and to connection with the naturalworld and the people who sustained him; throughout the book his feeling for theAmerican landscape rings out.

Lovingly introduced by acclaimednovelist, poet, and essayist Luis Alberto Urrea, The Search for the Genuine is a feast that captures a lifetime of reading, writing,and living to the fullest, from a true “American original” (San Francisco Chronicle).