Fly Rod Crosby

Fly Rod Crosby: The Woman Who Marketed Maine
Hunter, Julia & Shettleworth, Earl G. Jr., 2000.
Fly Rod Crosby: the woman who marketed Maine.
Gardiner: Tilbury House Publishers.
224 pages, paperback.
$25.00
ISBN 97800884482208.

Format: biography

Rating: 4.5/5.0 stars

Plot Summary
Young and sickly, Cornelia Thurza Crosby was required to spend more time in the fresh air of the great outdoors than the average young girl of the 1860’s.

Though sickly often, she found ways to enjoy the outdoors catching her first trout with a bamboo fly rod a few years later. As the town of Phillips grew, and a local paper established, Cornelia found her calling writing of her recreational adventures in a way that gained her notoriety. For her health, she began to spend a great deal of time in the Rangeley area fishing and regaling her tales to visitors. Throughout her life, every time she became sickly or needed a rest, she went fishing – and always wrote about it.

Within a few short years, word of her adventures traveled, nearly as much as she began to visiting friends and family up and down the state and seeking out some of the best fishing holes in each of those areas and writing about it. Her skill with the fly rod firmly established her nickname “Fly Rod” and inspired many to cast in Maine’s waters.

By the late 1880’s she held four positions, two writing for local newspapers, one as a clerk for the bank, and a newly acquired job of visiting places like New York and Boston and Washington, DC to promote the recreational opportunities of Maine. All of her writing was intended to boost usage of the railroad as the only access into the wilderness of Maine.

Critical Evaluation
Written with a blend of passages from Fly Rod herself, fact and legend, Hunter and Shettleworth share the story of Cornelia Thurza Crosby that adds value to the details a reader might not know – without totally destroying the legend we have come to love about her.

As a writer, Fly Rod made and maintained many connections and this led her to far more opportunities, which she pounced upon, than most women of the era. The use of Fly Rod’s own writing throughout this book adds a richness and honesty that reassures the reader of her prowess, allowing us to see how the woman became a legend.

Hunter and Shettleworth share her extended story with Fly Rod’s passion for hunting and the need, as she saw it of having new legislation that would require registration for Maine guides so that tourists who placed their trust and lives weren’t not lost – casting a black mark on Maine tourism.

I really liked the way Hunter and Shettleworth showed Fly Rod’s value as a writer in marketing this little corner of Maine – and making it THE outdoor recreational area to visit throughout the 19^th and 20^th century. What was interesting was the implied cost of Fly Rod’s notoriety and they way she was presented many fine outdoor gifts because the giver knew that she would write about and review it for him. If it was positive, it boosted their sales. For her, it was a win-win situation, albeit more like propaganda than honesty.

Reader’s Annotation
Cornelia Thurza Crosby (Fly Rod) led a truly noteworthy life – a mix of truth and legend, as holder of the first Maine Guide license ever issued, first woman to legally shoot a caribou in Maine, and one who could catch a couple hundred fish a day. Hired by the railroad, she attended fairs and expositions to speak with potential guests of all the wonders the Maine woods had to offer, enticing them to travel to this remote area in the convenience of the railroad.

Information About the Author
Julia Hunter is a Maine native, graduated Dartmouth College and the Cooperstown Graduate Program in History Museum Studies. She is the curator of textiles with the Maine State Museum in Augusta, is on the Maine Folklife Center advisory board, and is an active member of Maine Archives and Museums. She also published Anna-May: Eighty-two years in New England, the oral history autobiography of a New England nurse.

Earle Shettleworth was born in 1948 and graduated from Deering High School, and became very interested in historic preservation at the age of thirteen when the original Portland Union Station was torn down to make room for a mall. At fourteen, he joined the Sills Committee, which founded Portland Landmarks when he was just sixteen years old. He graduated with a BA in Art History from Colby College and an MFA in Architectural History from Boston University. He is a Maine historian, served as president of the Maine Historical Society in the late 1970’s and was appointed the sixth State Historian by Governor John Baldacci. Currently he is the director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

(Hunter, 2000, p. 210) and (Shettleworth, 2011).

Genre:

Non-Fiction: History – before 1900

Curriculum Ties
The fascinating biography supports a study for Maine Guides classes, Outdoor Studies, and marketing for Fly Rod was the epitome of a woman with a sales pitch enticing the wealthy sportsmen and their families into the wilds of Maine.

Booktalking Ideas
1) truth or legend: Fly Rod shot against Annie Oakley in a sharpshooting competition
2) share a few examples of Fly Rod’s love of the recreational Maine Woods, through her own writings from Fly Rod’s Note Book

Book Trailer Links
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Reading Level/Interest Age
Grades 9 and up / YA

Challenge Issues
N/A

Awards
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Why Title Included & Selection Tools
Our school district encompasses two of the three towns where Fly Rod Crosby was born, raised, and perfected the art guiding. She is buried within a few miles of my home, and she is still considered famous in these parts. Guiding is still the most common professions in our area, with 100% of our school population knowing, being related to or having benefited from a Maine guide, and we all take pride that it started with this amazing woman from our area who brought city-folk from as far away as Boston, New York and Philadelphia.

Maine Sunday Telegram, Boston Globe, Bangor Daily News, Charleston Mercury