Background

Gene Hill was born on May 15, 1928, in Swartswood, New Jersey, United States. He was a son of Irving Hill and Pauline (Flynt) Hill. Also, Gene had two brothers — Walter Hill and Edwin Hill.

Education

Gene Hill graduated from Harvard University.

Career

During World War II, Hill served in Okinawa. In his early career, from 1958 to 1965, Gene worked as an advertising copywriter at Doyle Dane Bernbach company (present-day DDB Worldwide) in New York City. Later, he joined the J. Walter Thompson Agency as its creative director, a position he had held until 1973, turning to outdoor writing thereafter. For most of his life, Hill lived in the New York area.

During his lifetime, he also contributed his works to such magazines, as "Guns and Ammo" and "Sports Afield". Moreover, he acted as an associate editor and columnist for Field and Stream magazine.

Achievements

• Gene Hill gained prominence for his writings about outdoor activities and hunting dogs. He was known as a leader in the post-war generation of sophisticated writers, who helped free the genre of ''outdoors writing" from the cliches and overt sentimentality, that had previously been a staple of outdoor magazines.
  
  Moreover, the Outdoor Writers Association of America honored him as 1977's "deep woodsman of the year" and he was also bestowed with the Book Knife Award in 1978.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Gallery of Waterfowl and Upland Birds

    (This book will be read and enjoyed by anyone, who loves t...)

    1978
  • A Hunters Fireside Book

    (This is a book of brilliantly written observations, refle...)

    1972
  • Outdoor Yarns & Outright Lies

    (This classic collection of stories from well-loved author...)

    1983
  • A Listening Walk...and Other Stories

    (This book describes the author's experiences as a hunter ...)

    1985
  • Tears & Laughter: A Couple of Dozen Dog Stories

    (The author portrays his most memorable hunting dogs and r...)

    1981
  • Shotgunner's Notebook

    (Gene Hill presents the experiences and judgement of a wor...)

    1989
  • Mostly Tailfeathers

    (This book is about hunting and fishing, but its more than...)

    1975
  • Hill Country 1978
  • The whispering wings of autumn 1981
  • Passing a Good Time with Guns, Dogs, Fly Rods and Other Joys 1996
  • Sunlight and Shadows 1990

Views

Quotations: "And what will we take from November? To some of us, the pheasants will seem smarter, the quail and grouse faster, the ducks a little higher than we remember. It is not important that we do especially well; it is important only that we went."

"You know what the ideal dove gun for any-given day is? Your other gun — the one you left at home."

"Our greatest trophies are not things, but times."

"If in a single day we smell coffee, dawn, gun oil, powder, a wet dog, woodsmoke, bourbon, and the promise of a west wind for a fair tomorrow — and it’s possible for us to reek "happy"— that’s just what we will do."

"Good fires make good friends."

Personality

Hill was an avid sportsman, who brought his readers articles about outdoor activities, particularly bird hunting and fly fishing. He often wrote about his love for dogs as well.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Gene Hill writes for the classic "Everyman" and every man finds something in his writing, that is personally meaningful. He saw something in a little thing — a broken dog lead or an empty shotgun shell — the rest of us missed. And he told us about it as only he could do, and we knew something more about what happened and about ourselves, too." — Jim Rikhoff, an author

Interests

• Sport, hunting dogs

Connections

Gene was married to Cathy Lee Hill. Their marriage produced two daughters — Patricia Comly and Jennifer Hill. Also, he had two grandsons.

Father:

Irving Hill

Mother:

Pauline (Flynt) Hill

child:

Patricia Comly

child:

Jennifer Hill

Brother:

Walter Hill

Brother:

Edwin Hill

Wife:

Cathy Lee Hill