My Dogs and Guns: Two Memoirs, One Beloved Writer

“Over the decades I’ve developed the impression that John Graves is the most honest writer in America, and also one of the best. Here is further evidence.” —Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall

My Dogs and Guns pairs two memoirs—two halves of an outdoorsman’s heart. First is “Blue and Some Other Dogs,” the story about Graves’s favorite Basque-Australian sheep dog, Blue. Second is “Guns of a Lifetime” which is a nostalgic chronicle of the guns Graves has owned, beginning with a “rusted and cylinderless” revolver.

“So here are the stories,” Graves writes. “They are not all ‘nice’ tales in contemporary terms. Political correctness, as presently defined, may be perpetrated here and there, though I hope no parts will seem like the maunderings of a Deep South redneck. But if they do, the hell with it. I am too old to fret about such matters.”

It is delightful, hardy prose from a treasure of a writer.

Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for hunters and firearms enthusiasts. We publish books about shotguns, rifles, handguns, target shooting, gun collecting, self-defense, archery, ammunition, knives, gunsmithing, gun repair, and wilderness survival. We publish books on deer hunting, big game hunting, small game hunting, wing shooting, turkey hunting, deer stands, duck blinds, bowhunting, wing shooting, hunting dogs, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.