Gene Hill

Gene Hill is the author of A Listening Walk, and his presence is strongly felt in the articles because they are mostly personal reflections and observations on the hunting life. Gene is a lifelong hunter, introduced to it by his father and extended family, and the articles reproduced in this volume originally appeared in Field & Stream, for which Hill was an associate editor.

Several characteristics emerge about Hill. He loves acquiring hunting and fishing equipment, and he relishes in the preparation of his tackle box and the cleaning of his guns. He makes it clear that he is not a rich man, however, and so he spends a lot of time dreaming about the purchase or this or that expensive gun or reel.

Hill is also, as he admits over and again, not a very good hunter, in terms of skill or manual dexterity. In many of...