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FLYROD CROSBY
The Woman Who Marketed Maine

Julia A. Hunter
Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr.

Foreword by Sandy Ives
Published with the Maine State Museum

Paperback, $25
ISBN 0-88448-220-0
8
1/2 x 10 3/8, 224 pages, B&W Photos
Biography/Maine/Women's History

 "Flyrod Crosby"

MAINE BOOKS:

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Partners in Wilderness: Buzz Caverly and Baxter State Park —New

Patriarch of Maine Shipbuilding: The Life and Ships of Gardiner G. Deering—New

Remarkable Americans: The Washburn Family —New

Sharing the Ocean: Stories of Science, Politics, and Ownership from America's Oldest Industry —New

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Antiqueman's Diary

The Camera’s Coast: Historic Images of Ship and Shore in New England

Catboat Era, The

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Confluence: Merrymeeting Bay

Continental Liar from the State of Maine: James G. Blaine

Day's Work, A (Vol. I)

Day's Work, A (Vol. II)

Doryman's Day, A

Down on the Island, Up on the Main

Downeast: A Maritime History of Maine

Eminent Mainers

Fly Rod Crosby

Interrupted Forest, The

Islands of the Mid-Maine Coast, Vol. I

Islands of the Mid-Maine Coast, Vol. II

Islands of the Mid-Maine Coast, Vol. IV

Journalism Matters

Just One More Thing, Doc

Letters from Sea

Life Between the Tides

Little Pine to King Spruce

Maine Hamlet, A

Maine Made Guns & Their Makers

Maine's Visible Black History

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One Man's Meat

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Rangeley and Its Region, The

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Rediscovering S. P. Rolt Triscott

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Snow Squall

That Yankee Cat

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Unsettled Future, Unsettled Past

Upriver Passamaquoddy, An

Voyage of Archangell, The

Voyage of Detroit, The

Voyages: A Maine Franco-American Reader

While You're Here, Doc

Wood and Canvas Canoe, The

Worthy of the Sea: K. Aage Nielsen and His Legacy of Yacht Design

Cornelia Thurza Crosby's remarkable life (1854­1946) gave rise to a certain amount of legend: she was the first woman to legally shoot a caribou in Maine, held the first Maine Guide license issued, caught (but probably didn't release...) 200 trout in one day, and was rumored to have shot against Annie Oakley in a sharpshooting competition. Julia Hunter's insightful biography separates fact from fiction while exploring the career of a woman who worked tirelessly to promote the sporting life in Maine at the turn of the century.
     Miss Crosby was an articulate writer herself, and her column, "Fly Rod's Note Book," was syndicated throughout the eastern United States. The Maine Central Railroad employed her to travel to expositions and fairs, where in her outdoor dress of dark green doeskin with a scandalously short skirt, she stood in front of a small log camp decorated with the paraphernalia and trophies of the sporting life, spoke with passersby about the delights of Maine, and showed them her scrapbook of photographs—enticing them to travel the rails to the woods.
     Most of the photographs in her album were taken by E. R. Starbird, a commercial photographer specializing in Maine woods views, and many of those images are reproduced in this biography, which also contains an essay on Starbird's work by Earle Shettleworth. Excerpts from Fly Rod's writings add to this fascinating picture of the Maine woods at the turn of the century and provide further insight on the unusual life of this remarkable woman.
     Julia Hunter is the registrar and curator of textiles of the Maine State Museum; Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., is the director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

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