Charles Gaines (writer)
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January 6, 1942
Charles Gaines | |
|---|---|
 Gaines with his dog, Sumo, in August 2014 | |
| Born | Charles Latham Gaines, Jr. January 6, 1942 Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer, outdoorsman |
| Spouse | Patricia Ellisor |
| Children | Shelby Gaines Latham Gaines Greta Gaines |
Charles Latham Gaines, Jr. (born January 6, 1942) is an American writer and outdoorsman, notable for numerous works in both the fiction and non-fiction genres. His writing most typically concerns the outdoors sports of fishing in general and fly fishing in particular, as well as upland bird hunting and mountaineering, often with an intellectual and philosophical bent, and an eye towards the various cultures and traditions surrounding different forms of fishing around the world.
In addition to his outdoors writings, Gaines covered the "Golden Age" of professional bodybuilding and is the coauthor (with George Butler, who did the photography) of Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding (1974), considered the definitive journalistic work in that field, and credited for bringing greater awareness to a specialized subculture, as well as helping to launch the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Gaines also narrated and contributed to the documentary film of the same name.
Gaines is active in the conservation movement and in particular the stewardship of the North American Atlantic Salmon fisheries. He has served on the board of directors of the Atlantic Salmon Federation.
Gaines was born in Jacksonville, Florida on January 6, 1942, the son of Margaret (née Shook) and Charles Latham Gaines.[1] At the age of ten, he and his family moved to Birmingham, Alabama. As a teenager, Gaines took up bodybuilding. He briefly attended Washington and Lee University but left school to travel around the country. He later received his BA from Birmingham-Southern College and his MFA in writing from the University of Iowa.[2] In 1970, he moved to New Hampshire, where he taught creative writing at New England College.
Writing career
During a long and varied writing career Charles Gaines has published 25 books, among them the novels Stay Hungry, Dangler, and Survival Games; the non-fiction international bestseller, Pumping Iron; and the award-winning memoir, A Family Place. The book Pumping Iron and a later film of the same title written and narrated by Gaines are widely credited for having introduced competitive bodybuilding and Arnold Schwarzenegger to the general public.
He also wrote the scripts for two produced feature films, two award-winning feature-documentaries, and a 2-hour PBS adaptation of Edith Wharton's Summer, as well as numerous segments for ABC's American Sportsman, a show for which he also directed and produced. For his television writing he was the recipient of two Emmys, and two Cine Golden Eagle Awards.
Over more than 50 years of magazine writing, he has published articles and stories in Harper's, GEO, Sports Illustrated, Town & Country, Architectural Digest, Audubon, Outdoor Life, Esquire, Men's Journal, Playboy, Garden & Gun, Field and Stream, Sports Afield, and Southern Living, among many other periodicals, and has served as a contributing editor to a number of those magazines.
He is a life-long bird hunter and angler who has fished in over 20 countries and on 5 continents. His two collections of essays on angling, "The Next Valley Over"[3] and "Waters Far and Near"[4] are widely considered to be among the best American books of that genre. He was a founding member of the US Fly Fishing Team, and fished as a member of that team in World Championship Fly Fishing Competitions in New Zealand and Tasmania.
He is a lifetime board member of the US Fly Fishing Team, and a US National Council member of the Atlantic Salmon Federation. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus by both The Altamont School and Birmingham Southern College, and has taught periodically as an Associate Professor in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2018 he was inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame, and he was the 2020 recipient of the coveted Truman Capote Prize for lifetime achievement in non-fiction
