John McDonald has been referred to as the scholar-author of all fishing literature. His works include "The Origins of Angling" -published 1963, this work gave the angling world a new printing of Berner's "The Treatise of Fishing with an Angle", and in 1972 he published "Quill Gordon". However, John McDonald is perhaps best known for his literary talents by editing and assembling into book form the classic work, "The Compleat Flyfisherman, The notes and letters of Theodore Gordon" -published in 1947.