Hoover:
The Fishing President
by Hal Elliott Wert
Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania,
2005
416 pp. illus. 75 b/w. Trade, $29.95
ISBN: 0-8117-0099-2.
Reviewed by Wilfred Niels Arnold
University of Kansas Medical Center
warnold@kumc.edu
The lives of men and women who have wobbled
the world are always of interest. However,
the book industry holds that controversy,
sexual titillation, or even scandal makes
the world go round and would have us believe
that it is a prerequisite for successful
biography (be it of poets, painters, or
presidents) in the popular marketplace.
This is not to be found within Hoover,
but Hal Wert has performed a masterly
service and has constructed a pleasant
discourse in pulling together the long
and accomplished life of the 31st American
president. It is appropriately subtitled
"portrait of the private man and his life
outdoors."
Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964) was born
to Quaker parents in West Branch, Iowa.
His training in engineering and geology
at Stanford University (as a member of
the first graduating class) and a sound
system of personal values led to a series
of mercantile and mining-industry successes
in the U.S. and around the world. He was
a rich man.
Herbert Hoover amassed a fine library
of books devoted to mining and geology
while he was in London. They included
a copy of De re Metallica by Georgius
Agricola (1494-1555), a compendium in
Latin on 15th century mining
practices with 300 woodcuts (p. 86). Hoover
and his wife Lou (who was also a trained
geologist), together with several hired
translators, then produced an English
edition from an early German translation.
This book was published privately (3,000
copies) in 1917 and remains an exemplar
of Hoover's scholarly work.
President Warren Harding (1865-1923) chose
him as Secretary of Commerce, which he
continued under President Calvin Coolidge
(1872-1933). During World War I and for
some years immediately thereafter, Hoover
was associated with the relief of human
disasters in Europe, and his efficient
and productive enterprises established
a measure of American goodwill in contrast
to isolationist precursors. After WW II,
he was called upon in a similar capacity
by Harry Truman (1884-1972). The Hoover
presidency (1929-33) suffered more from
the general financial exigencies of the
time than from his abilities as leader.
"I have no dread of the ordinary work
of the presidency. They have a conviction
that I am a sort of superman, that no
problem is beyond my capacity. If some
unprecedented calamity should come upon
this nation . . . I would be sacrificed
to the unreasoning disappointment of a
people who had expected too much" (Christian
Science Monitor, November 27, 1932).
The problem was the depression, and he
was, indeed, sacrificed.
Hoover adopted fishing as his recreation
and as a downright relief from the pressures
of business or civil service––indeed,
it was a fitting retreat for the "contemplative
man" as in the fisherman's bible by Izaak
Walton (1593-1683). [The full title was
"The Compleat Angler, or, The Contemplative
Man's Recreation: being a discourse on
fish and fishing not unworthy of perusal
of most anglers." There were over 300
separate printings beginning in 1653.]
According to Hal Wert (p. 116) a seminal
event for the then Secretary of Commerce
was his embrace of the newly formed Izaak
Walton League of America, championed in
1922 by Will Dilg of Chicago. Manifestos
were also written about the same time
by novelists Emerson Hough (1857-1923)
and Zane Grey (1872-1939). Hoover fished
streams, lakes, and seas throughout the
U.S. (especially in California, Oregon,
Florida, and New England) and was instrumental
in the foundation of clubs and resorts
as well as agencies (private and public)
devoted to the preservation and improvement
of waterways, fish hatcheries, and water
conservation. Wert has assiduously documented
all of this by first-hand research into
books, articles, newspaper reports, transcripts,
diaries, and interviews.
Hoover: The Fishing President is
nicely produced, complemented with a great
number of well positioned black and white
illustrations and is reasonably priced.
The paper used throughout is of good quality
for text and adequate for reproductions
although many of the photographs would
have been much enhanced on gloss. The
index is skimpy. Thus key Hooverian words
such as "geology" and "mining" do not
appear, let alone "beer"––fortunately,
this reviewer had earmarked the Hoover
quote on page 70 about Western Australia
being "a place where it was cheaper to
bathe in beer than in water." The notes
at the back of the book are presented
as usual by chapter, but in this case
they are more user-friendly because they
are given as a continuous run of numbers
(1-1,128). A list of illustrations would
be helpful in the next edition.
This volume will find a readership among
fishing aficionados, historians, presidential
scholars, seekers of the "simpler" life,
and conservative republicans, not necessarily
in that order. Herbert Hoover was unexciting
but the clay that Dr. Wert sculpts comes
out in the shape of a sincere fellow,
a scholar, and a humanitarian with real
achievements. Above all, he was an intelligent
hard-working man.
