INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER. A book "that has very little to do with trout fishing and a lot to do with the lamenting of a passing pastoral America ... an instant cult classic" (Financial Times). Richard Brautigan was a literary idol of the 1960s and '70s who came of age during the heyday of Haight-Ashbury and whose comic genius and iconoclastic vision of American life caught the imaginations of young people everywhere. Called "the last of the Beats, " his early books became required reading for the hip generation, and on its publication Trout Fishing in America became an international bestseller. An indescribable romp, the novel is best summed up in one word: mayonnaise. This edition features an introduction by poet Billy Collins, who first encountered Brautigan's work as a student in California.