Selwyn Kip Farrington, Jr. (May 7, 1904 – February 7, 1983) was an American writer and sport fisherman. As a journalist he did much to popularize big game fishing from the 1930s onward, and set a number of records himself. In addition to fishing, he was a noted rail enthusiast. Farrington wrote and published twenty-four books covering such diverse topics as fishing, railroading, and amateur hockey.
Farrington became a recognized figure in the sportfishing community. He served as fishing editor of Field & Stream from 1937 to 1972 and counted the American writer Ernest Hemingway, another avid fisherman, among his friends.[2] His largest catch came in 1952, when he caught a 1,135-pound (515 kg) Atlantic blue marlin off Cabo Blanco, a record for the time.[1][2] He was the first to catch a blue marlin off Bimini[3] and the second, after Hemingway, to catch an Atlantic bluefin tuna there.[2]
Farrington's other great love was rail transport. Over the course of his life Farrington rode trains in 39 countries, amassing thousands of miles.[1] Farrington wrote ten books on the railroad history, "with an emphasis...on what was new in railroading." The American historian John H. White Jr. called Farrington a "skilled writer."[4]
Farrington married Sara Houston Chisholm, who became an accomplished angler in her own right, in East Hampton in 1934. Farrington lived in East Hampton until his death in 1983.[1]
