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Mill House Podcast

Episode 75: Tom McGuane - King of Words (Part 2)

Mill House Podcast

Mill House

Wilderness, Sports, Leisure, Education, Hobbies

5973 Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2022

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tom McGuane is a giant among legends across all continents and countries. His boundless heart and endless determination tackled dreams only he could’ve accomplished. Tom’s extraordinary writing is in the record books and for the rest of time he’ll be remember as one of the greats. His literary spectrum includes ten novels, five screen plays, and countless short stories. His work has received a page full of awards culminating with his induction into The American Academy of Arts and Letters. But then there’s the fishing, the hunting, and the HORSES; cutting horses. Tom McGuane is a savant of many talents! Although he was born in Michigan, his heart ventured west. As a young man he worked on a ranch in Wyoming where he first got his boots dirty. After the success of his book and movie “Sporting Club," he bought a ranch in Montana and property in Key West. His life on a horse became extremely important to him and he became a great “cutter” often beating the best in the world and eventually was inducted into The Cutting Horse Hall of Fame. But it was in Key West where Tom McGuane caught fire. It was there, when his writing was young and his aspirations were as vibrant as the blistering sun. Literature, fishing, and adventures after dark took on a life of its own. It was there, where of a handful of friends, all writers too, became a brotherhood that challenged life’s offering to its fullest. Jim Harrison, Russell Chatham, Guy De La Valdene, Jimmy Buffett, Hunter S.Thompson, and Kurt Brautigan did what the rest of the world wished they could do. They had more fun than the law allowed and were brilliant with everything they touched. Each would become extremely successful and famous. But as much as anything else, they loved to fish. What most the fishing world doesn’t know is that these guys put Tarpon fishing on the map. And they made a movie about it called, "Tarpon." This production showed what a magnificent, beautiful, ageless fish it is. It loves to eat flies, it’s big and jumps majestically.... It's the most perfect fly rod fish one could ever have the privilege to catch. As much as Tom McGuane has accomplished, his greatest success is having Laurie Buffett as his wife and their daughter Annie. And fathering two other children, Thomas and Maggie with former wives, Rebecca Crocket and Margot Kidder.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Tom McGuain's complete life would have only been lived by an extraordinary person that

0:11.2

dreamt without barricades, rules, and pursued a limitless sense of freedom

0:16.0

and wonder that he did.

0:18.0

I find Tom McGuine to be one of the most interesting and compelling people to know and

0:22.2

understand.

0:23.6

At this stage, I just wish I was a professional interviewer,

0:27.0

but here's my best shot. We broke everything. We broke lines, we broke hooks, we broke rods, we broke our minds, we broke our minds, we broke marriages, we broke the whole thing.

0:47.0

We came up with the idea of going out that night and chasing girls and whoever had the biggest pair of

0:52.2

pain he's went to pot.

0:54.2

I knocked another arrow and he turned around the other way and I

0:56.6

shot him going through the other way.

0:58.2

So I double-lung them both ways.

1:01.0

But it was nothing for us to paddle an air mattress out into government cut.

1:05.0

I got him on.

1:07.0

All right now, we're going to teach him a lesson.

1:10.0

I'm just an old guy that likes to fish and I'm not quitting yet.

1:14.0

And he said, well, who the hell do you think you are, Sue App?

1:18.0

And I said, that's exactly who I am.

1:21.0

Life's journey to the grave should not be one arriving with a pretty well preserved body

1:26.6

but rather skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke thoroughly torn out thoroughly thoroughly used up,

1:34.0

proclaiming wildly.

1:35.0

Wow!

...

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