My favorite authors for hunting Africa and India

[postoak]

I pulled this together for John Camp and thought I would share.

Jim Corbett (1875-1950) - Man Eaters of Kumaon, My India, The Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, The Temple Tiger and More Man Eaters of Kumaon, Jungle Lore. Corbett comes across as a compassionate man with a love for the Indian people of that era. His writing is understated. No exaggeration of his exploits.

J.A. Hunter (1887-1963) - "Hunter" (1952) is basically his biography up to his retirement and return to his native Scotland. Most of his career was spent working for the Kenya Colonial government protecting people from animals that wandered outside the animal preserves and protecting animals in the preserves from people.

John Taylor (1904-1969 - Pondoro, Last of the Ivory Hunters, African Rifles and Calibers He hunted commercially for 30 years 11 months of the year and nobody has a greater knowledge of hunting Africa, African cartridges, and even the African people than Taylor -- the gold standard.

Frederich Selous (1851-1917) - a real old timer who hunted mainly elephant, commercially, mostly in the black powder days. I've only read the one book covering his early years, "A Hunter's Wandering in Africa, being a narrative of nine years spent amongst the game of the far interior of South Africa, containing accounts of explorations beyond the Zambesi, on the river Chobe, and in the Matabele and Mashuna countries, with full notes upon the natural history and present distribution of all the large Mammalia.

 

[Witold Krzyżanowski]

These are also my favorites authors.

 

[Doug Hamilton]

I pulled this together for John Camp and thought I would share.

Jim Corbett (1875-1950) - Man Eaters of Kumaon, My India, The Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, The Temple Tiger and More Man Eaters of Kumaon, Jungle Lore. Corbett comes across as a compassionate man with a love for the Indian people of that era. His writing is understated. No exaggeration of his exploits.

J.A. Hunter (1887-1963) - "Hunter" (1952) is basically his biography up to his retirement and return to his native Scotland. Most of his career was spent working for the Kenya Colonial government protecting people from animals that wandered outside the animal preserves and protecting animals in the preserves from people.

John Taylor (1904-1969 - Pondoro, Last of the Ivory Hunters, African Rifles and Calibers He hunted commercially for 30 years 11 months of the year and nobody has a greater knowledge of hunting Africa, African cartridges, and even the African people than Taylor -- the gold standard.

Frederich Selous (1851-1917) - a real old timer who hunted mainly elephant, commercially, mostly in the black powder days. I've only read the one book covering his early years, "A Hunter's Wandering in Africa, being a narrative of nine years spent amongst the game of the far interior of South Africa, containing accounts of explorations beyond the Zambesi, on the river Chobe, and in the Matabele and Mashuna countries, with full notes upon the natural history and present distribution of all the large Mammalia.

I like your list. But I would add J. H. Patterson The Man-Eaters of Tsavo.

Robert Ruark Use Enough Gun.

Peter Hathaway Capstick Death in the Long Grass.

I know that it has become popular to dismiss these last two, but really who has gone hunting in Africa without reading them? I know that they certainly made an impact on me.

 

[spoonieduck]

It's been a long time since I read Capstick but certainly can't fault Old Purple Prose as an author. Unlike Corbett, however, some of his tales were embellished. Nevertheless, Capstick may be the most influential Africa hunting author, ever, and was partly responsible to the resurgence of African hunting during the early 1970s. When both Hemingway, Roosevelt and Ruark wrote of African hunting trips, African hunting was only for the wealthy, usually the extremely wealthy.

But then in the 1970's many African hunts dropped dramatically in price. This was largely due to two American partners who hit on a great idea. They went to farmers and ranchers in South Africa, Southwest Africa [Namibia] and old Rhodesia [Zimbabwe]. They asked them if they'd like to supplement their incomes by taking out the occasional sports hunter. They weren't 'steely-eyed'Professional Hunters. They were farmers but many conducted great hunting trips, improved by the fact that these farmers--doing something different--enjoyed it as much as I did. My first hunt over there in the mid 1970s was organized by these fellows [no I can't remember their names], but they had a nice brochure. My first trip, I shot Rhodesia, South Africa and Southwest Africa, and did it cheap..

No, all my animals weren't major trophies but, at the time, even a 45 inch kudu looked like a monster.

Now, it's more serious and not as much fun probably because I carry a tape measure.

 

[Red Leg]

Ruark's "Horn of the Hunter" and Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa" or my two favorites (Ruark's "Use Enough Gun" is OK but is left over material from "Horn of the Hunter" and reads a bit like cut and paste). And if you like Ruark, you must read his great African novel - "Something of Value."

They are closely followed by Corbett, Hunter, Selous, Markham, and Dinesen.

I find Taylor a great reference, but a bit tedious to simply read.

From a purely entertainment perspective, Capstick writes a wonderful yarn - particularly his earliest works like "Death in the Tall Grass" and "Death in the Silent Places."

I "surely" don't do Boddington well.

 

[Don Hinton]

The Wonderings of an Elephant Hunter by Bell. Have book and audiobook.

 

[spoonieduck]

I have the book written by Dineson's husband, Broor von Blixen. It's helpful to read them one after the other, especially if you've seen the Dineson movie 'Out of Africa". As you can recall, the movie plays Finohhatten [I don't have the name right, but close Brad Pitt plays the role of Finchhatten]] as a true gentleman and enemy of her rogue of a husband, von Blixen. Blixen, who had no reason to lie in that he wrote his own recollections many years before the movie, told things quite differently. He and Finchhatten were the best of friends, drinking and carousing together. Von Blixen spoke of him many times--and fondly--during his book. If such is true, it may be that she acquired her 'social illness' from supposedly mild-mannered Finchhatten rather than her husband.

This is not to say Dineson was lying. It is only that her perception of a tough African world--and the men who hunted there-- was different from that of von Blixen.

Another truly great book is Stigand's, "Hunting the African elephant." In the book he actually predicts his own death in days when the Brits actually fought to suppress rebellious tribes. He said most such affairs were non-events. Without a shot being fired, the rebels agreed to return to their usual occupations. "But," he said, "once out of 100 times it is entirely different. There's a rush in the grass, the flash of spears, and a company of Europeans lay dead on the dirt." This is PRECISELY the way Stigand died fighting the Dinka in the Sudan. They said there were 12 empty cartridge cases next to him but the inspectors found no live ammunition. He fired 12 shots before he was overcome, and Stigand was an excellent shot.