Tales of Fishes

Zane Grey, the American author famous for his popular Western adventure novels, published this non-fiction work in 1919. In addition to being a dentist and writer, Grey was an avid fisherman. This title is full of zesty and manly fishing adventures of watching and wrestling with big game fish off the coast of southern California and is tastefully illustrated with photos taken by the author. He writes of great love for the town of Avalon (“… the beautiful”), the only city on Santa Catalina Island, and notes how the growing international fishing industry was casting its “dark shadow” over it. Today, it is sobering to note that he foresees that the days of plentiful ocean game were coming to a close, and he says if you “…aspire to the study…the big game of the sea, go to Catalina Island once before it is too late.”