John Gierach — Sex, Death, and Fly-Fishing, signed

What this book is

John Gierach was the most widely read American fly-fishing writer of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From his base in Lyons, Colorado, he produced a steady run of essay collections — Trout Bum (1986), this one (1990), Even Brook Trout Get the Blues (1992), Standing in a River Waving a Stick (1999), and many more — that defined the genre. He wrote a long-running column for Fly Rod & Reel magazine, and his books moved enough copies that Simon & Schuster kept publishing him for thirty-plus years. He died on October 31, 2024.

Sex, Death, and Fly-Fishing is widely cited as Gierach’s most-anthologized title. The essays cover trout fishing in the American West, the writer’s relationship to small streams, the death of friends and partners, and the moral economy of catch-and-release. The book is on the syllabus for every "literature of the outdoors" course that includes fly-fishing literature.

Why this copy matters

Gierach died in October 2024. His signature pool is now closed.

For fly-fishing-literature collectors, signed Gierach has long been a category. Now that the pool is closed, every signed copy that surfaces is finite and authenticatable. NMLP’s closed-signature-pool reference page tracks deceased authors whose signatures have moved into this category — though it focuses on NM-region authors, the same principle applies to any deceased author with an established signature corpus.

Multi-part bibliographic record

How it came in

Donated in May 2026 through NMLP. Donor scenario anonymized. Hardcover in clean condition.

Where it’s going

Routes through fly-fishing-literature collector channels. Likely buyer: a Colorado or Rocky Mountain regional fly-fishing-literature collector, an Orvis-Endorsed Fly Shop reference shelf, or a private signed-modern-firsts collector specializing in outdoor and sporting literature. Sale through standard NMLP channels.