Treeson: An Apologia to Trees

Title: Treeson: An Apologia to Trees
Release Date: Dec 2022
Genre: Fishing, Humor, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Sports & Outdoors
ISBN13: 9798359686150

Treeson is an apology to all the trees that went into making the newsprint to carry the author’s drivel to readers of the Chicago Tribune, Milwaukee Journal, Wisconsin State Journal, and Stevens Point Daily Journal of a 35-year newspaper career back when newspapers mattered. It uses some of the author’s old stories to revisit many remembered adventures ranging from a trip on the Delta Queen with Jimmy and Rosalyn, to 30-below zero in a Red Cliff deer yard.

Written in a relaxed “conversations-from-the-recliner style, Treeson takes the reader along an amazing journalistic journey that uses canoes, walking sticks, and dog sleds. It is a cruise on a memorable “ship of writing.”

Bill Stokes was winner of the Scripps-Howard Ernie Pyle Memorial Award, and he earned many other awards and recognitions, including Best Wisconsin Writer by the Wisconsin Writers’ Group.

 

“Bill Stokes' rollicking memoir of his newspaper days is wonderful reading, overflowing with the famous (Jimmy Carter, Elizabeth Taylor), the infamous (Ed Gein, Pappy Frye) and the wackily colorful -- too many to list here. I'm on the record earlier saying Bill was one of the very best newspaper writers ever to type in the Midwest, and I stand by that assessment even while learning here that his own mother once wrote a letter to the editor criticizing his column. Bill's book makes me mourn for the days when, as a friend once put it, poets wrote for newspapers. You'll love his memoir. And I haven't even mentioned the monkeys.”
- Doug Moe, journalist and author of The World of Mike Royko.

“Bill Stokes' look-back at his newspaper career is as beautifully written and insightful (and hilarious) as his well-crafted observations of nature over the years. You will never look at the Statue of Liberty quite the same again.” Kathy O'Malley, former Chicago Tribune columnist/WGN radio star.
“A true wordsmith with an eye for the unusual as well as the truth only documented by a sharp observer!!!!” Sam Martino, former Investigative Journalist with the Milwaukee Journal.
“This is very good stuff--a wonderful mix of hilarity and seriousness. I especially liked the writing about the Lawtons-- people would say where are they now when we need them?” Harry Peterson, former UW administrator and lobbyist

Bill Stokes has been delighting readers for decades at some of the country's most prestigious newspapers. HIs new book Treeson precisely captures why that's been so. Bill takes us through his prolific newspaper career's highlights and low where we, too, get to meet the characters he met and the movers and shakers he touched. An outstanding contribution to the understanding of how quality journalism works -- and worked for Bill Stokes.
Dave Zweifel, editor emeritus, the Capitol Times

Well, half a loaf is better than none. At least we kept Tony in the Governor’s Mansion. Anyway, here’s that blurb for Treeson. I would love to get together for a beer sometime if you’d like.
Geoff Carter, Author of Thicker than Water

Most observers who have lived here long enough to know would agree that Bill Stokes was the best newspaper writer this state has produced.  In this compilation of columns spanning his years at various state newspapers and, finally, the Chicago Tribune, Stokes demonstrates why that tribute is accurate, even if his work did result in the death of hundreds of trees pulped for paper.  Now in his 10th decade, Stokes continues to write a daily column -- this time for Facebook.
Rev. Bill Wineke, Pastor and former State Journal columnist