Fifty Years A Hooker

About the Book

The stories in Fifty Years a Hooker range from dramatic, nerve-pounding accounts of shark hunts to tales of comic misadventures, involving a host of eccentric characters who could not resist the pull of Frank Mundus´ legendary "idiot magnet". Mundus´ extensive compilation accurately reflects the book´s title. He was, indeed, a hooker. For fifty years he sold his services, took good care of his customers and saw to it that they had a good time, hoping that they went away satisfied and would come back again.

Among the stories you´ll find in Fifty Years a Hooker are:

White Shark, White Pineapple. The agony of waiting for the right writer.

How I Got Started Shark Fishing. How a broken arm and two train wrecks kept me on the right track for a fishing career.

The Pelican Disaster. My involvement in one of the worst maritime disasters off Long Island.

Harry Hoffman and the Case of the Lost White Shark. The zany fishing misadventures of my friend, Harry Hoffman, and me.

The 4,500 lb. White Shark. My mate, my customers and I fight one of the largest whites ever taken commercially by harpoon.

Peter Gimbel. The first man who swam with sharks, while I rode shotgun.

Close Calls. The time an ice-cream cone saved my life, plus other close calls.

Tap-Tap. The time I hollered at Jackie Onassis for jay-walking on the island of St. Maarten.

The St. Maarten Sting: Or, How I Sold the Cricket III. Borrowing a storyline from the movie The Sting, I sell my other boat and outsmart a couple of Caribbean pirates.

Portrait of the Artist as an Idiot. A mysterious artist (who lost the Mayor of Shelter Island´s bust!) claims me as his muse for a watercolor of a white shark.

Mundus of Arabia. A Saudi Prince hires me to pioneer shark fishing in the Red Sea. I just miss a public beheading and narrowly escape one year in jail.

The 3,427-lb White Shark. In 1986 I achieve my lifetime ambition of catching the largest fish of any kind on rod and reel, with the help of some seasoned mates and an experienced angler.

Pistol-Whipped by the Law. A mate´s dog and his ex-wife set off a chain reaction which culminates in my arrest for possession of a firearm.

Three-time Loser, Fourth-time Winner. The two happiest times in a man´s life are when he buys a boat and sells it . . . and sells it and sells it, and hopefully sells it again, like I did!

Getting to the Heart of Things. I remarry, burn my snow shoes and retire to Hawaii, where I plant pineapples and fruit trees, adopt a orphaned 350 lb. wild boar, and survive open-heart surgery, aneurysm repair and prostate cancer.

My South African Shark Safari. In which I travel to South Africa with the Discovery Channel and hook up with white sharks once more—this time through the lens of a camera.

About the Author

FRANK MUNDUS’S background was the unacknowledged inspiration for Peter Benchley’s shark hunter “Quint” in the book and movie Jaws. Mundus spent over fifty years catching sharks off Montauk Point, Long Island, New York. He pioneered the sport of shark fishing in 1951. Mundus has co-authored two other books Sportfishing for Sharks (Macmillan, 1971) with Bill Wisner and Monster Man (Cricket II, 1976) with Robert Boggs. In 2005 Mundus will appear in a Discovery Channel one-hour biographical special for Shark Week. JEANETTE MUNDUS Fifty Years a Hooker is a collaborative effort with her husband Frank on his autobiography.