Feather Thief

[Gene L 0]

It's a book about obsession. Rist was an excellent tier, an exceptional tier, but then he had a steady source of feathers no longer available. He was a concert flautist, as well. He wanted a new flute, like a high-grade one, which he bought with flies from stolen feathers. He made money at the expense of a museum's collection dating back a hundred years. He would take an entire day to tie a fly and sell it for a thousand bucks. The point (or one point) is salmon don't care how a fly looks, they can't feed when migrating, and any fly will work just fine. Rist appealed to those who could afford a display fly, not a fisherman.

[Mark Knapp 0]

Not to be nit-picky, but he earned money for his golden flute, (yes, a flute made of gold) by selling the feathers he stole to other tiers at very high prices. He may have sold some flies too, but the book made no mention of it. (not that I remember).

[DFoster 0]

I just read the story of this guy here- Is Rist going to be the villain in the next James Bond movie?

 

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/05/a-flautist--299-stuffed-birds--and-the-bizarre-crime-of-an-obses/

[xvigauge 0]

Nope ... I don't like books, TV shows, etc. that portray crooks as "the good guy".

From these threads, that's the gist.

These discussions are as close to this book as I want to get.

It looks like you got the wrong gist. As others have said, he was not a crook portrayed as a good guy. But then, you would never know that for sure because you did not read the book.

Joe

[mikechell 0]

Yep, you are correct, Joe, I will never read the book. You may also be correct that I got the wrong gist. Okay, I'm good with that.

 

I can agree, however, with another's comment that a thief or other crook should be punished. That's all I did with the "hear, hear, comment above. Don't have to read a book for that.

 

I'm just tired of all the "gray area" people ... who think this crime or that one is "victim-less". Integrity is an archaic ideology, it seems.

[tjm 0]

British law, British Justice. Integrity? idk

[brooknut 0]

I'm eager to see the movie.

[milkman 0]

I was given the book for Christmas by a beloved niece who is an editor for a major magazine. She knew I was a voracious reader and interested in tying and, without reading it herself, surmised this might be a good fit.

 

I found the book to have virtually zero about the tying of flies. But I found it to be absolutely fascinating. The first half anyway. They should have stopped there, but then there was this dull wild goose chase (no pun intended) where he tried to count the feathers and skins still around. Dull, deadly boring, and the book sort of just wound down.

 

It was interesting that the museum had no clue what they had. If he had left some in each drawer the theft might have never been noticed. But someone eventually wanted to look in a drawer, and an empty drawer with a label is some sort of clue. My late wife was in charge of accessions for a museum, and there was a major paper trail for everything that come in or went out, they knew what they had and where it all was at all times.

 

He sold birds, skins, feathers, some with museum packing in the eyes and museum labels attached. Buyers had to know, but apparently didn't care since they had money and a source.

 

He beat the rap with apparently no remorse, not the best outcome for my taste, but that didn't detract from the interesting narrative.

 

It's not about fly tying. It seems to be well written. I learned a lot about a subject I knew nothing about, which is plenty of justification for reading the variety of things I read. I consider my time well spent.

 

I can't pick up an owl feather out of my own woods, but I understand the logic. If sale and/or possession are allowed, there will be birds killed.

[Gene L 0]

It's definitely not about fly tying in an instructive way, since his materials were only available from him. It's not an instructive book, it's a crime book.