Wishing My Father Well: A Memoir of Fathers, Sons and Fly-Fishing

On the South Branch of the Raritan River in New Jersey, Bill Plummer casts his line in the hope that fly-fishing will fortify him in the face of a failed marriage, his father's death, and a faltering career. With the discovery of his father's fly-fishing diary, Bill has set his mind to understanding his father's devotion to the sport and fathoming the depths of what he thought was a distant and enigmatic man. He comes to delight in the peculiar pleasures of the pastime, finding in it points of tangency to his own son, while developing the strength for a second marriage.

Wishing My Father Well is a moving intergenerational memoir which remind readers of James Prosek's Joe and Me , James Dodson's Faithful Travelers. , and Mitch Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie. Bill Plummer passes down the wisdom of a quiet and unprepossessing father who was "closer to nature than the rest of us" while, in exquisitely detailed scenes, brings us closer not only to the ripples of the stream but to the small epiphanies that eddy through this plainspoken story.
About the Author: William Plummer was an editor at People magazine. An avid fly fisher and the author of The Holy Goof: A Biography of Neal Cassady and Buttercups and Strong Boys: A Sojourn at the Golden Gloves. He wrote for such publications as The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, Esquire, Newsweek, Hudson Review, and Men's Journal. He passed away in 2000.