SILENT SEASONS: 21 FISHING ADVENTURES BY 7 AMERICAN EXPERTS - INSCRIBED TO WILLIAM HJORTSBERG

New York: E.P. Dutton, 1978. First Edition. Chatham's third book, a collection of 21 fishing stories, with contributions by Thomas McGuane, Jim Harrison, Jack Curtis, Harmon Henkin, Charles F. Waterman, and William Hjortsberg, whose contributions include "The Fly Shop," "The Creature from the Lower Yellowstone," and "99 and 44/100ths Percent Pure." According to Chatham, the first and only edition of the book "went out of print with the speed of light. Interest in a reprint was nonexistent. Discouraged, I bought up all the remaindered copies and hauled them up to my house at the end of Deep Creek. During the following decade I kept a few independent booksellers and fly shops inconsistently stocked" (from the preface to the 1988 edition). A superb association copy, inscribed to long-time friend and fellow Montanan William Hjortsberg (1941-2017), a central figure in the coterie of Montana authors that included Chatham, McGuane, Jim Harrison, Richard Brautigan, Tim Cahill, Peter Bowen, and others. First Printing. Octavo (24cm); brown paper and cloth-covered boards, with titles stamped in gilt on spine; dustjacket; xviii,204,[2]pp; illus. Inscribed by Chatham on the half-title page to fellow Montana author, screenwriter, and outdoorsman William "Gatz" Hjortsberg: "For Gatz / Boulder River / Russell Chatham / Deep Creek / 1985." Handful of faint, tiny spots to upper edge of textblock, else Fine. Dustjacket is unclipped (priced $11.95), lightly edgeworn, with a faint ripple at upper rear panel; Near Fine. Publisher's original order form laid in.