Writing Lessons from Jim Harrison

…he was the writer I wanted to be.

To me, the greatest loss of 2016 was the writer Jim Harrison. He was one of America’s literary treasures, and perhaps the world’s greatest craftsman of the novella. On the page, Harrison was best known for Legends of the Fall.

His extracurricular activities included gourmet cooking and eating, raising many dogs, fly fishing, hunting, and chilling with the likes of Jack Nicholson, Anthony Bourdain, and Jimmy Buffet.

When I was an undergraduate, he was the writer I wanted to be. Here are few things I gleaned from that episode of hero-worship:

Nobody Wants to Read About Landscapes and Food–Unless they’re Written Brilliantly

Someone said Jim Harrison is to food what Henry Miller is to sex. His details are out of this world. The trick is, he knows when to be sparse and economic, and when to linger on every sensation.

New York is a Distraction

Harrison was well aware of the advantages of being a non-New York writer–peace and quiet for one. According to his obituary in the Times, he had “little but contempt” for the city, and was not afraid to question New York’s cultural prominence. He told The Paris Review, “The Upper East Side of New York was constitutionally the most provincial place I’d ever been.” Also, he found Hollywood paid much better.

Hemingway and Faulkner didn’t go to College…

Jim Harrison did, but his degree was delayed by frequent road trips and romances. He used college to get his hands on the books he needed to teach himself the craft of novel writing.

Living Well is what Matters

He broke up his writing days with cooking and eating with friends. He collected wine and recipes for woodcock, grouse, and birds I’ve never even heard of. His memoir includes strip clubs among his lifelong obsessions.