The Wild Duck Chase
Inside the Strange and Wonderful World of the Federal Duck Stamp Contest
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
THE WILD DUCK CHASE is the basis for "The Million Dollar Duck," a documentary feature film, directed by Brian Golden Davis and written by Martin J. Smith, premiering at The Slamdance Film Festival in January 2016. The book takes readers into the peculiar world of competitive duck painting as it played out during the 2010 Federal Duck Stamp Contest-the only juried art competition run by the U.S. government. Since 1934, the duck stamp, which is bought annually by hunters to certify their hunting license, has generated more than $750 million, and 98 cents of each collected dollar has been used to help purchase or lease 5.3 million acres of waterfowl habitat in the United States.
As Martin J. Smith chronicles in his revealing narrative, within the microcosm of the duck stamp contest are intense ideological and cultural clashes between the mostly rural hunters who buy the stamps and the mostly suburban and urban birders and conservationists who decry the hunting of waterfowl. The competition also fuels dynamic tensions between competitors and judges, and among the invariably ambitious, sometimes obsessive and eccentric artists--including Minnesota's three fabled Hautman brothers, the "New York Yankees" of competitive duck painting. Martin Smith takes readers down an arcane and uniquely American rabbit hole into a wonderland of talent, ego, art, controversy, scandal, big money, and migratory waterfowl.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Smith, editor-in-chief of Orange Coast magazine, serves as the "fly on the wall" during the highly competitive 2010 Federal Duck Stamp Contest in his new book, tracing its origins and its current popularity. The contest, originating with Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1934 wildlife preservation law in the Great Depression, provides for "the sale of an obscure revenue stamp" bought by hunters and stamp collectors, generating more than $750 million in funds, with 98 cents of each dollar going to buy millions of acres of U.S. waterfowl habitat since its inception. With a low-key writing style supported by fine research, Smith takes the readers behind the scenes as five judges weigh the artistic and commercial quality of the 235 submissions in the only juried contest administered by the U.S. government. The Hautman brothers, Jim, Joe, and Bob, are the most fascinating of the artistic competitors, but the author paints many of the participants in a lively, entertaining manner while the contest runs its hectic course. Smith's compelling story of a largely forgotten federal program will cast some timely light on the ongoing clash between rural hunters and urban conservationists on preserving the habitat of waterfowl.
