Semi-OT - Best safari books for the beginner?

[awp101]

OK, maybe the title isn't really accurate but I'm not quite sure how to word the request.

Over the past year or two there's been some threads on Peter Capstick, W.D.M. Bell(IIRC), etc, I read an account or two in Mr Ackley's 2 volume handbook and now my interest is piqued. Previously, my reading of anything dealing with Africa has dealt with WWI, WWII, the Bush Wars, Rhodesia, and mercenary activities during the 60s and 70s.

For the novice safari reader (as opposed to the novice reader ), where's a good place to start reading up on the glory days of safari-ing? (If that's not a word, it is now... )

[nemhed]

I recently read "Green Hills of Africa" by Hemingway and I'm currently reading his "True at First Light". Both of these chronicle his African safaris and are good reads. Capstick's books are readily available, and I enjoyed them greatly when I was in my teens. If you're only going to read just one of his books then it should be "Death in the Long Grass". Another good one edited by Capstick was "Man-eaters of Tsavo" written by Patterson. Also a must read for anyone interested in hunting in Africa is "African Game Trails" by T.R. Roosevelt.

[Doc Hudson]

You just can't go wrong with Robert C. Ruark's Horn of the Hunter, Use Enough Gun, and there is another safari book or two Ruark wrote whose titles escape me at this early hour. All are somewhat dated being from the 1950's and early 1960's but great reading just the same. if you can find a copy of the documentary Robert Ruark's African Acventure you will enjoy a look at African Safari in the late 1950's.

Another that any gun crank interested in Africa should read is John "Pondoro" Taylor's African Rifles and Cartridges, it is a great source of info on the Classic Big Game Cartridges with lots of hunting, shooting stories from early 20th Century Africa, some of them probably true some exaggerated to make Taylor look better.

In spite of his detractors, I don't think anyone will deny Peter Capstick's ability as a storyteller. Most of his "Death in..." series is relating stories of what others did rather than boasting of his own prowesss as some have accused..

REcently, American Rifleman ran a two part story written by Harry Selby (Robert Ruark's friend and frequent hunting guide) called The Kwaheri Safari, the story of his and Ruark's last grand safari in British East Africa befoe Ruark was banned fom the country.

if you want to delve even further back that the early Post-War years, you might enjoy Theodore Roosevelt's account of his great safari before World War I

W.D.M. 'Karmojo" Bell's Bell of Africa is a good autobiography of an old Africa hand and one of the greatest ivory hunters.

in fact, i believe Bell and Taylor are the only old time ivory hunters who published extensively. most of them didn't live long enough to publish a lot and Selous who did live long enough didn't leave a large literary legacy.

now if you are looking for African Adventure from the earlies, you just have to read Sir Henry Rider Haggard's African novels! King Solomon's Mines and any of his Alan Quartermain novels give you a rousing good story and lots of safari detail from the last half of the 19th Century.

All of Haggard's works and many by Theodore Roosevelt are available free on-line at: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Unfortunately none of Ruark's works are available at Guttenberg

[Doc Hudson]

Nemhed's right! Maneaters of Tsavo is a real knuckle-biter!

I put it don convinced that Colonel Pateson had to have been the luckiest son of a biscuit-eater to ever walk the earth and the most inept hunter of maneaters to ever succeed. how he managed to avoid becoming lion turds is beyond my comprehension.

The Michael Douglas, Val Kilmer film The Ghost and the Darkness, loosely, very loosely, based on Maneaters of Tsavo is a great adventure movie, but does not have the knuckle-biting quality of the original story.

[awp101]

Thanks guys! I hadn't thought about Hemingway. I'll have to see what the book vendor at the next show has.

[KCSO]

Stewart Edward White Land of the Footprints and such, Roosevelt's book and a Selous' autobigrophy. Then when you are all done find a copy of Mike resnik's Adventures and laugh for a week. The Right Reverand Lucifer Jones does Africa.

[buckeyeshooter]

capstick, safari the last adventure. There is also a 'reprint' library capstick commissioned before his death of about 20 books rereleased by various authors. That would be a great way to start and would keep you reading a long time.