Best classic Africa hunting books

BigUglyMan said:
Aah, eventually they'll come around. Give 'em a couple of years. You're half-way to a hunting trip with Gatehouse after three years...anything's possible!
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Really.........that's news to me..........you have an odd take on a lot of things, don't you? Your mind doesn't necessarily work within the parameters of logical progression does it?
I guess anything is possible...........but he'd have to agree to hunt with a ..........wait for it..............375...........waaaaaaaaaaaait...........Holland and Holland.......THE TRUE KING !!!!


You're the one who brought him up...........remember that...................
 
Big Bad said:
Didn't see any mention of Jock of the Bushveldt, a classic with a dog as a bonus. Also African Game Trails by Teddy Rooseveldt. That's two 'veldts' and now I'm out of them.
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I keep thinking that Selous wrote a book but if so I never found a copy. Capstick is a very compelling writer, no question.

( Something went wrong there and I quoted my first post instead of editing it, but anyway. )
 
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Selous wrote several books, only two of which I've read so far, African Nature Notes and Reminiscences, and A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa. Nature notes is the better of the two IMO, but there's a bunch of drivel in the first couple of chapters about protective colouring. A hot debate back at the turn of the last century apparently, sort of like arguing about which is better, .375 H&H or .375 Ruger.
 
c-fbmi said:
Dutch.............don't believe everything you read........Capstick was never a game control officer and never actually hunted as a PH. He did hold a PH license in several countries but these were purchased not earned. All of his "first person" stories are actually about a bunch of PHs who shared their stories with Peter Thataway Chapstick as he is known all over southern Africa. Although a big fraud, his writing is some of the best I have read and have almost, if not all, that he has written.
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I consider Capstick fiction, based on a collection of experiences both his and otherwise. Really no different than any Hollywood movie's depiction of actual events.

To keep it short and sweet, I couldn't get enough of Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter. And for pure period Africana not based solely upon hunting, "Into Africa" by Martin Dugard, an entertainly written chronicle of Stanley and Livingston- Stanley mentioned first because he carries much of the book.
 
India isn't Africa, but I'm going to throw Jim Corbett into the mix here. He actually walked out into the jungles alone, stalking notorious man killing tigers and leopards to the huge benefit of the local populations. It was how he took his holidays! Operating under extreme modesty and understatement too, which is just a British trick to make every story more extremely hair raising. His best known book is of course Man-Eaters of Kumaon.
 
c-fbmi said:
Really.........that's news to me..........you have an odd take on a lot of things, don't you? Your mind doesn't necessarily work within the parameters of logical progression does it?
I guess anything is possible...........but he'd have to agree to hunt with a ..........wait for it..............375...........waaaaaaaaaaaait...........Holland and Holland.......THE TRUE KING !!!!


You're the one who brought him up...........remember that...................
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I think it could be quite a SOMAesque adventure. Of course, Gatehouse would have to use the true king. But you would have to agree to use the NEW King. In the spirit of cooperation and putting the world on its ear.

Thoughts? Angus?
 
Ardent said:
I consider Capstick fiction, based on a collection of experiences both his and otherwise. Really no different than any Hollywood movie's depiction of actual events.

To keep it short and sweet, I couldn't get enough of Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter. And for pure period Africana not based solely upon hunting, "Into Africa" by Martin Dugard, an entertainly written chronicle of Stanley and Livingston- Stanley mentioned first because he carries much of the book.
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This book I really want to get my hands on. Amazon prices are ridiculous for the book and Doug's suggestion of Safari Press only has an audio book version. Hoping my library can get it for me.
 
Bells three books are outstanding - my favourite being Karamojo Safari, shadows in an African twilight by Kevin Thomas is also a great book, as is Aagaards African Adventure by Fin himself..
 
cam1936 said:
This book I really want to get my hands on. Amazon prices are ridiculous for the book and Doug's suggestion of Safari Press only has an audio book version. Hoping my library can get it for me.
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Go to abebooks.com, it's a database where used book stores all over the world list their stock. I've gotten a lot of rare and out of print African books there, including the one you're looking for. A quick search shows one in Australia for $65.

http://www.abebooks. com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=5530430390&searchurl=tn%3Dwanderings+of+an+elephant+hunter%26an%3Dbell%26sts%3Dt
 
I know full well who you are tough guy and it does not impress me one bit. I also know about your run ins with the cowboys and the cause for them. I look forward to re introducing myself next November. Not a newcomer at all. Been here 15 years. I heard through the grapevine you lived outside now but that was just gossip.
 
Holy crap, only on CGN could a thread about hunting literature start to head into "Locked Thread" territory. :)

I don't think anyone has mentioned that anything by J.A.Hunter would be worthy of a read, along with Theodore Roosevelt's "African Game Trails". Robert Ruark wrote of his hunts better than Hemingway ever did of his. Capstick not only had his hugely entertaining "Death In The Fill-in-the-blank" books, but he was also the series editor of a run of St.Martin'sPress reprints of old-time hunting classics by a bunch of guys you've probably never heard of, writing about a bunch of things you'll probably never do...stuff like spearing lions from horseback and other interesting diversions. I grabbed about a dozen of these at a garage sale once and devoured them all; great fun!

Not exactly "classic", or at least not yet, but Craig Boddington has three books about his safaris written over a span of 30+ years, that he has often referred to as his "ten-year" books, since each details 10 years of hunts. "From Mt.Kenya to the Cape", "Where Lions Roar" and "Tracks Across Africa", quick and easy reads, much more conversational and easier reading than the heavier old-time stuff, and also worth looking for.

It's easy to fill shelf after shelf with this stuff, there's lots to choose from.
 
crag boddington books are okay but he is just not a great story teller like a lot of the others ,my kids got me his books for Christmas ,I am always looking for good books and you would be amazed at what you can find at garage sales ,Dutch
 
dutchhunter said:
crag boddington books are okay but he is just not a great story teller like a lot of the others ,my kids got me his books for Christmas ,I am always looking for good books and you would be amazed at what you can find at garage sales ,Dutch
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The nice thing about Boddington is that he freely admits when he blows it on an animal. Same can't be said of lots of writers.
 
I actually briefly met C.B. at a hunt camp once. He was coming in on the plane that was taking me out and we had a chance to chat briefly. Nicest guy you could hope to meet. His books are perhaps not literary masterpieces...they aren't fictional works, but factual accounts of his hunting experiences, described in a lively, friendly manner that makes them very easy and pleasant to read. I feel a bit of a debt to Boddington...many authors, including a number mentioned in this thread, wrote of Africa in a way that had me fantasizing about hunting there. Boddington is the one who, through his books and even more through his magazine articles, made me realize that enough focus and determination would make it completely possible.

And there's a bonus as well: after you hunt Africa, you can read all these books over again and enjoy them from a completely different perspective.:)
 
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