First published in 1967, although written in 1961, Trout Fishing in America was Brautigan's second published novel. Trout Fishing in America was the novel that launched Brautigan's rise to literary fame, and is still considered by many critics as his defining literary work.

Brautigan wrote Trout Fishing in America during Summer 1961, while camping with his wife, Virginia Alder and daughter, Ianthe, in Idaho's Stanley Basin. According to Virginia, she and Brautigan bought a "ten year old Plymouth station wagon" using a $350.00 tax refund.

[W]e loaded [it] down with books, a Coleman stove and a Coleman lantern, a tent, sleeping bags, diapers, and we took off for the Snake River country of Idaho. We'd camp beside the streams, and Richard would get out his old portable typewriter and a card table. That's when he began to write Trout Fishing in America. He had to learn to write prose; everything he wrote turned into a poem. (Kevin Ring 12)

Brautigan recorded the romantic-sounding names of Idaho creeks and rivers where he caught trout, in order, in his notebook: Silver Creek, Little Wood Creek, Copper Creek, Big Smokey Creek, Paradise Creek, Salt Creek, Little Smokey Creek, Carrie Creek, Middle Fork of the Boise River, Queens River, South Fork of the Poyette River, Big Pine Creek, East Fork of Big Pine Creek, Fall Creek, Redfish Lake Creek, Salmon River, Little Redfish Lake, Yellow Belly Lake Creek, Stanley Lake, and Stanley Lake Creek.

Brautigan carried a seven-foot, two-section bamboo fly rod and reel which he used to fish streams and rivers encountered along the trip. In the winter of 1974, Brautigan traded the rod and reel to writer and editor J. D. Smith. Both the rod and reel were sold in an eBay auction. This photograph illustrated the auction.

VIEW a larger image of this photograph.

Pierre Delattre recalled a fishing trip with Brautigan and how Brautigan lamented not being able to capture the magic of "his trout fishing book" on paper.

Then one afternoon back in North Beach we went into a hardware store so that he could buy some chickenwire for his bird cage. Suddenly he seized the pen from my pocket, the notebook from my shoulder bag, ran out and over to a park bench, and started to scribble a story about a man who finds a used trout stream in the back of a hardware store. The next day, we stopped to chat with a legless-armless man on a rollerboard who sold pencils. Brautigan called him "Trout Fishing in America Shorty," and wrote a story about him. From then on, trout fishing ceased to be a memory of the past, but the theme of immediate experience and Brautigan's book made him a rich and famous writer. (Delattre 53-54)

According to San Francisco artist Kenn Davis, the inspiration for the story "The Cleveland Wrecking Yard" came from a real-life experience:

Somewhere in 1958—although my memory is faulty about this date—I rented a rundown cottage on a hill and decided I wanted a bigger window overlooking the city of San Francisco. A mile or so away was the Cleveland Wrecking Company yard, where all kinds of house salvage was stored. I called Dick and told him I was going there and [asked] did he want to come along—so we did; he found the place fascinating, and lo and behold he wrote about it in Trout Fishing in America. Poets can find inspiration anywhere. As it was, I bought a large window and we drove it to my shack, where I installed it to my satisfaction. (Davis, Kenn. Letter to John F. Barber. 9 June 2004.)

Donald M. Allen arranged for Grove Press, in 1963, to purchase publication rights to four novels by Brautigan, A Confederate General from Big Sur and Trout Fishing in America, both already written, and two future novels that Brautigan would write. Allen, poet, editor of The Evergreen Review, West Coast representative of Grove Press, and owner of the San Francisco nonprofit press Four Seasons Foundation convinced Barney Rossett at Grove Press in New York to publish Brautigan.

Of Brautigan's work, Grove Press was most interested in A Confederate General from Big Sur, thinking it the more "traditional" novel. Thus, although it was the second novel Brautigan wrote, A Confederate General from Big Sur became the first published.

Disappointing sales of A Confederate General from Big Sur prompted Grove Press to reject the next two Brautigan novels in turn: In Watermelon Sugar, written in 1964, and The Abortion, written during the first five months of 1966 and to allow their contract for Trout Fishing in America to expire in July 1966.

Seeking a publisher for his books, Brautigan wrote to Robert Park Mills, a New York literary agent, as suggested by Don Carpenter, on 5 October 1966 asking him to act as his literary agent and to sell "three unpublished novels": Trout Fishing in America, In Watermelon Sugar, and The Abortion. "Grove Press is no longer my publisher and I am looking for a new publisher. . . . I need an agent to sell the three novels and to try and sell the Confederate General rights that I have lying around over at Grove."

Mills agreed to represent Brautigan and his novels, but in a 25 November 1966 letter Brautigan informed Mills of a change of plans.

I have decided to allow two young West Coast publishers Coyote Books and the Four Seasons Foundation to bring out Trout Fishing in America and In Watermelon Sugar in pilot editions early next year. I think the novels are unpublishable in New York at this time. . . . I would like to find a New York publisher for my novels, but I think The Abortion is the only novel of mine that stands a chance right now in New York. I look forward to hearing from you about it.

READ the letters exchanged between Mills and Brautigan.

After rejection by several publishers—Viking Press later noted "Mr. Brautigan submitted a book to us in 1962 called TROUT FISHING IN AMERICA. I gather from the reports that it was not about trout fishing."—Trout Fishing in America was published by Allen and Four Seasons Foundation. Brautigan wrote Mills on 7 October 1967 to say Trout Fishing in America had been published. Brautigan wrote Mills again on 19 December 1967 to say the first printing consisted of 2,000 copies.

The publisher of Trout Fishing in America was Four Seasons Foundation, a nonprofit press run by Donald Allen. Letters, signed by Allen, sent with review copies of Trout Fishing in America stated the publication date as October 31, 1967 and noted the novel would be distributed by City Lights Books. Allen and Four Seasons Foundation eventually published Brautigan's third novel In Watermelon Sugar in 1968 and Brautigan's first major poetry collection, The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster in 1968.

The front-cover photograph, taken in San Francisco's Washington Square Park, March 1967, was posed in front of the statue of Benjamin Franklin. Brautigan provides details about this photograph in the first chapter.

Another photograph was originally intended for the front cover. This one, taken in April 1965 by Weber, was a head and shoulders portrait of Brautigan alone in front of the same Franklin statue. The statue and trees seem to loom over Brautigan.
Weber explains "The Trout Fishing Cover Origin" this way: As depicted in the front cover photograph, dressed in a surplus Navy jacket, black jeans, a vest adorned with many pins and buttons, and soft, high-crowned, uncreased tan cowboy hat, Brautigan was a familiar sight around Haight-Ashbury and North Beach.

An anonymous poem titled "The Birth of Digger Batman," published in The Digger Papers (Ed. Paul Krassner. New York August 1968: 10-11.) tells of one Brautigan sighting:

Rap rap on the door and I go to open it to Richard Brautigan who comes in under a soft tan hat, checks out the action, spots Cassandra in the kitchen, decides everything is cool, walks once again through the rooms, tall, slightly stooping like a gentle spider standing up (We are all spiders, or ants, or something, I remember wondering, watching Richard putting his hands in his pockets and taking them out) decides to split. "Be back in a while—need anything?" "No, nothing." Out the door he goes." (10-11)

The clothing, at least, might have resulted from personal style and fear of change.

Richard always dressed the same. It was his style and he wanted to change it as little as possible. (I was like that myself at the time. We were all trying to get the exact style of ourselves.) Richard's style was shabby—loose threads at the cuff, black pants faded to gray, an old mismatched vest, a navy pea-jacket, and later something like love beads around the neck. As he began to be successful he was even more fearful of change. (Michael McClure 39)

The statue of Benjamin Franklin was donated by dentist and prohibitionist Dr. H. D. Cogswell. Cogswell installed water taps at the base of the statue in hopes that people would drink water from them rather than seeking out bootleg liquor.

Some of the first public readings were arranged by Jack Spicer, who arranged for Brautigan to read from his book over two consecutive nights at a San Francisco church at the corner of Market, 16th, and Noe Streets (Ellingham and Killian 223).

Matthew Shelton, however, contends that the first public readings of Trout Fishing in America were to the acting troupe of the 14th Street Arts Theater in San Francisco.

The early acceptance of the novel was positive. Critics hailed Brautigan as a fresh new voice in American literature. For example, Newton Smith said,

Trout Fishing in America altered the shape of fiction in America and was one of the first popular representatives of the postmodern novel. . . . The narrative is episodic, almost a free association of whimsy, metaphors, puns, and vivid but unconventional images. Trout Fishing in America is, among other things, a character, the novel itself as it is being written, the narrator, the narrator's inspirational muse, a pen nib, and a symbol of the pastoral ideal being lost to commercialism, environmental degradation, and social decay. (Smith 122)

Dedication reads:

For Jack Spicer and Ron Loewinsohn

Both Jack Spicer and Ron Loewinshon were poets active in the San Francisco literary scene. Spicer, a gay San Francisco poet, was Brautigan's mentor and confidant, especially following Brautigan's wife's affair and elopement with Tony Aste. Spicer was attracted to Aste so the rejection was probably hard for him as well as Brautigan. Spicer and Brautigan talked about the the manuscript for Trout Fishing in America and together they revised it, "as though it were a long serial poem" (Ellingham and Killian 223).

Ron Loewinsohn speculated on the reasons for the double dedication. "Me, I think, just friendship; and Jack, editing, help, whatever he did. Jack was absolutely fascinated with Trout Fishing, and spent a lot of time with Richard talking about it." Spicer may have recommended cuts; this was rumored in the community at the time. "Anytime you [could] get Richard Brautigan to accept criticism [was] an unbelievable accomplishment. He [was] so defensive, and so guarded; and Jack was able to get him to make changes. Whatever he did he deserved some sort of Henry Kissinger award" (Ellingham and Killian 223).

A copy inscribed to Donald Allen

This copy is for Don Allen
thank you
Richard Brautigan
September 29, 1967

Brautigan drew a small fish on either side of the words "thank you"


"The Cleveland Wrecking Yard." The New Writing in the USA. Eds. Donald M. Allen and Robert Creeley. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1967. 33-38.

According to San Francisco artist Kenn Davis, the inspiration for the story "The Cleveland Wrecking Yard" came from a real-life experience:

Somewhere in 1958—although my memory is faulty about this date—I rented a rundown cottage on a hill and decided I wanted a bigger window overlooking the city of San Francisco. A mile or so away was the Cleveland Wrecking Company yard, where all kinds of house salvage was stored. I called Dick and told him I was going there and [asked] did he want to come along—so we did; he found the place fascinating, and lo and behold he wrote about it in Trout Fishing in America. Poets can find inspiration anywhere. As it was, I bought a large window and we drove it to my shack, where I installed it to my satisfaction. (Davis, Kenn. Letter to John F. Barber. June 9, 2004.)

"Trout Fishing in America 2." Evergreen Review (33) August-September 1964: 42-47.

Featured five chapters: "Witness for Trout Fishing in America Peace," "A Note on the Camping Craze That is Currently Sweeping America," "The Pudding Master of Stanley Basin," "In the California Bush," and "Trout Death by Port Wine." Also featured work by John Fowles, Robert Gover, Blaise Cendrars (translated by Anselm Hollo), Jakov Lind, Michael O'Donoghue, Julian Beck, Judith Malina, Jack Kerouac, Lysander Kemp, Alden Van Buskirk, and Harold Pinter.

Evergreen Review, published in New York, NY, 1957-1973, was edited by Barney Rosset and Donald M. Allen (numbers 1-6 only) with the backing of Grove Press. "Trout Fishing in America." Evergreen Review (31) October-November 1963:12-27.

Featured four chapters: "The Hunchback Trout," "Room 208, Hotel Trout Fishing in America," "The Surgeon," and "The Cleveland Wrecking Yard." Also featured work by Anselm Hollo, Pauline Reage, Andrei Voznesensky, Lenore Kandel, Harold Norse, Robert Coover, W. S. Merwin, Jack Kerouac, and Douglas Woolf.

Evergreen Review, published in New York, NY, 1957-1973, was edited by Barney Rosset and Donald M. Allen (numbers 1-6 only) with the backing of Grove Press.

According to San Francisco artist Kenn Davis, the inspiration for the story "The Cleveland Wrecking Yard" came from a real-life experience:

Somewhere in 1958—although my memory is faulty about this date—I rented a rundown cottage on a hill and decided I wanted a bigger window overlooking the city of San Francisco. A mile or so away was the Cleveland Wrecking Company yard, where all kinds of house salvage was stored. I called Dick and told him I was going there and [asked] did he want to come along—so we did; he found the place fascinating, and lo and behold he wrote about it in Trout Fishing in America. Poets can find inspiration anywhere. As it was, I bought a large window and we drove it to my shack, where I installed it to my satisfaction. (Davis, Kenn. Letter to John F. Barber. June 9, 2004.)

In a letter to Barney Rossett, dated 16 December 1962, Allen described Brautigan's novel as possessing "a wonderful tone" and "a definite moral point of view." He concluded by saying, "I do think it deserves serious consideration as an Evergreen." "Trout Fishing in America." City Lights Journal (1) 1963: 27-32.
112 pages; Paperback, perfect bound with printed wrappers. Published by City Lights Books, San Francisco, CA. Edited by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Front cover photograph by Gary Snyder of Allen Ginsberg in the Central Himalayas. Dedicated to e. e. cummings and William Carlos Williams.

Featured three chapters: "Worsewick," "The Salt Creek Coyotes," and "A Half-Sunday Homage to a Whole Leonardo da Vinci." Also featured a photograph of Brautigan.

In addition to this work by Brautigan, this issue also featured works by W. C. Williams, Anselm Hollo, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Daniel Moore, Ed Sanders, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Harold Norse, Ted Joans, Michael McClure, Stuart Z. Perkofff, Mayakovsky (translated by Hirschman and Erlich), Henri Michaux (translated by Corman), Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Antonin Artaud (translated by Rattray), and Bruce Conner. Poetry by Daniel Moore and Harold Norse was included in the first paperback collections published by Grove Press in 1957.

Of Brautigan, Barry Silesky said,

Also included was fiction writer Richard Brautigan, who had been writing and reading his poetry around North Beach since the fifties, even selling copies of his poems for small change on street corners. Three sections of Brautigan's strange, inviting, deceptively simple Trout Fishing in America appeared; it was an important early exposure for him that helped open the way to a wider audience, and to publication of that novel in 1967, as well as his previously written comic Confederate General in [sic] Big Sur in 1964. Both of them became best-sellers, and by the late sixties, Brautigan's following had grown from a tiny cult to a huge section of the swelling counterculture, rivaling that of Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti himself. (Barry Silesky 122)

San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1967
112 pages; First printing October 1967; 2,000 copies
Printed wrappers
No hard cover edition was published until the collection of Trout Fishing in America, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, In Watermelon Sugar.

Front cover photograph by Erik Weber of Brautigan and Michaela Clark LeGrand, whom Brautigan called his "muse."

No illustration or photograph on back cover. More . . .

Brautigan wrote, on 19 December 1967, Robert Park Mills, then his literary agent, with details about figures for both first and second printings of Trout Fishing in America. More . . .

The phrase "Writing 14" on the opening page indicates placement in the publisher's writing series edited by Donald M. Allen.

• Amereon
• Arion
• Bantam
• Cape
• Delacorte
• Delta
• Houghton Mifflin
• Laurel
• Picador
• Vintage

• Czech
• Dutch
• Estonian
• Finnish
• French
• German
• Greek
• Hungarian
• Icelandic
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Norwegian
• Persian
• Polish
• Romanian
• Russian
• Spanish
• Swedish
• Turkish

"Knock on Wood [Part Two]." Lexington, New York: Art Awareness Gallery, 1979.
Oblong folio broadside. More . . . The Body. Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, 1991.
212 pages
Features twenty three black and white photographs of art sculptures and the stories that inspired the artists.
Reprints "Worsewick" and "Red Lip," both chapters from Trout Fishing in America
Brand, Stuart. "Trout Fishing in America." The Last Whole Earth Catalog: Access To Tools. Ed. Stuart Brand. Menlo Park, CA: Portola Institute, 1971. 254.
Reprints brief excerpts from the novel.

If it's fish you're after, go to p. 280. For headfishing, stick around.

Whole Earth Review Winter 1998: 2. James, Laurence, ed. Electric Underground: A City Lights Reader. London: New English Library, 1973. 128-131.
Hardcover with dustjacket; ISBN-13 978-0450016028

Reprints three chapters: "Worsewick," "The Salt Creek Coyotes," and "A Half-Sunday Homage to a Whole Leonardo da Vinci" that originally appeared in City Lights Journal (1) 1963: 27-32. (see above)

A United Kingdom anthology intended to introduce City Lights Books and the Beat Generation. Reprints poetry and prose by authors published in City Lights Books including (in order of appearance) Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Miroslav Holub, Andrei Voznesensky, Michael McClure, Norman Mailer, Mayakovsky, Philip Lamantia, Pablo Picasso, William Burroughs, Anselm Hollo, Dr. Paul Ehrlich, Semyon Kirsanov, Julian Beck, Gary Snyder, Jeff Nuttall, Jean Genet, Antonin Artaud, Tom Pickard, Michael Horowitz, and Brautigan.
In 1970, Brautigan released a record album titled "Listening to Richard Brautigan" that featured him reading poetry, short stories, and selections from some of his novels. One reading was "The Hunchback Trout," a chapter from Trout Fishing in America. More . . .

LISTEN to Brautigan read the "The Hunchback Trout."

In addition to the specific reviews detailed below, commentary about this book may also be included in General Reviews of Brautigan's work and his place in American literature, or reviews of his Collections.


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Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 5. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1976. 67-72. READ the full text of this review.
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Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 12. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1980. 57-74.
READ the full text of this review. READ the full text of this review.
READ the full text of the reference to Brautigan.
READ the full text of the reference to Brautian.
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Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 12. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1980. 57-74.
READ the full text of this review.

Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 5. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1976. 67-72.
READ the full text of this review.
READ the full text of the reference to Brautigan.

LEARN more about this book.
READ full text of the reference to Brautigan. 66 pages plus bibliography; 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.0"; ISBN: 0884301346
Paperback, with printed wrappers
#135 in the Western Writers Series
Provides a critical assessment of Trout Fishing in America.

Mills also wrote "'Debauched by a book' Benjamin Franklin, Richard Brautigan, and The Pleasure of the Text" Concludes, "this book ought to be required reading in hippie pads."

READ the full text of this review. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 12. Ed. Dedria Bryfonski. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1980. 57-74. Schneck participated on the Creative Arts Conference program with Brautigan in August 1969.

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Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 42. Eds. Daniel G. Marowski and Roger Matuz. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1980. 48-66.
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READ the full text of this review.

Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 5. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1976. 67-72.

READ the full text of this review.