The Art of American Game Calls is a book about a unique American art form, the game call.  Calls are most familiar to duck, goose and turkey hunters.  However, many other types of calls exist and one has been made for nearly every type of sporting hunt as well as for the hunting of most prey animals.  A few other books have been written on calls and the books by Harlan are superb.  Dr. Russell E. Lewis authored Collecting Antique Bird Decoys and Duck Calls, 3^rd Edition and it has extensive coverage (two chapters) of all types of calls.  Yet very little has been written on this subject and few know the value of a good call.  Dr. Lewis has used calls for duck, squirrel and turkey hunting.  He grew up in an extended family that hunted, trapped and fished and used every possible means at gaining their objective at hand, including the use of calls.  As a collector he became interested in the beauty of calls and started keeping a few.  The next thing he knew, he had well over a hundred of them and the calls became a new collection to go with his decoys and fishing lures.

As a former archaeologist and current author on antiques, the next step was to do research on the making and collecting of calls and write a book.  His publisher, Billy Schroeder asked him to do this book with large views of calls to show their intrinsic beauty and tell you a bit about them.  The book is not meant as much a reference as a photographic record of about 300 calls shown in detail.

Dr. Russell E. Lewis enlisted the assistance of Mr. Joe Jaroski who has been making calls since 1945.  Joe has made hundreds of calls and knows or knew most of the major call makers in America, especially along the Illinois River, parts of the Ohio River and Mississippi River hunting areas.

The Art of American Game Calls Identification & values guide