Best classic Africa hunting books

I have a second edition of A Hunters Wandering In Africa by Selous that my Aunt was going to throw out, they found it in a house they bought. I was 15 at the time, it's propably the biggest reason why I dreamed of Africa for 40 years before I went.
 
I'm enjoying horn of the hunter at the moment and read death in the long grass last week. The last ivory hunter was a good one as others have mentioned. I enjoyed Taylors writing on Rifles and cartridges quite a bit as well. I read them all (various authors) with a grain of salt and can't wait to read them to my kids when they are older. I found Bodington very dry but use his writing as a reference manual as he has a stand up reputation.
 
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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Bumping an old thread, but if anyone is looking for Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter by WDM Bell amazon.ca has a paperback version in stock for $10.82. When I looked a few months ago the cheapest you could find on the net was $65 USD + shipping from AUS.

They have one left, I ordered mine a few days ago and it should be here soon.
 
nof60 said:
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.
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Wow!
 
Just adding to the list, one book I enjoyed enormously is "Into the Thorns" by Wayne Grant. There are lots of wonderful African hunting books out there, but this one stands out by having as much to share about growing up as a boy in Zimbabwe as it does about being one of the better known leopard guides. I couldn't put it down while reading it.
 
I finished reading Game Ranger's Notebook by Blayney Percival not too long ago. Very good read, mostly dealing with Kenya circa 1900-1920's. Due to a brain cramp I wound up with two copies of this. If anybody's interested in my spare, send me a pm.
 
Took a look through my outdoor books, which are mostly north American, but found three, two on Africa and one on India, Man Eaters of Kumaon, by Jim Corbett.
One has only the word, Pondoro, on the cover, but inside it is "LAST OF THE IVORY HUNTERS," by John Taylor. It is copyright 1955 and I seem to have the first printing.
My other African one is "Killers in Africa," by Alexander Lake.
My Maneaters of Kumaon states it was first published in India in 1944, Copyright Canada 146 and mine states it is the first Canadian Edition.

I read these too long ago to be able to make any comments on them.
 
All my favourites have been mentioned so far except African Rifles and Cartridges by Taylor and Something of Value by Ruark.

Just for fun I looked up the prices on 1st editions of Something of Value in the condition of the one I have, wondered if it had any value at all beyond a used book.

Yikes... a couple of hundred bucks! Woah. Too bad my new pup decided to gnaw a corner down for me on our first hunting trip together. Oh well, I wouldn't have sold it and the memories are more valuable anyway LOL.
 
A BC writer who made great fame for himself with all his outdoor experiences, but was actually a complete fake, was Bradford Angier.
He was an excellent writer and as one read his stories of how he survived severe winter nights in a makeshift lean to, your imagination took over and soon you were there, hearing every bang, as the frost cracked the green trees. But for Bradford Angier, this was all dreaming make believe, as well.
He had been a journalist in New York and after WW2 he decided to go north. He packed up his typewriter and his secretary, got to have a secretary you know and ended up in Puce Coupe BC, where he bought a cabin over looking the Peace River and they moved in.
He immediately started writing how to books on wilderness living and everything associated with it, from the cozy cabin on the river!
Through his New York connections in the literary world, he could get anything published that he wrote. And he wrote a great many books that were all highly acclaimed and huge sellers.
As a young guy greatly interested in the wilderness I read one of his early books and fell for it, hook line and sinker.
Then I started talking to people from Pouce Coupe and learned the truth! All of his books were written first person, that is, in the book it was he who had all these wilderness adventures and close calls in everything from face to face with grizzly bears to severe cold weather survival and everything in between. In reality he never left the cabin. But what he did as soon as they arrived was to visit every old timer and every trapper or bushman he could find and quiz them to no end about the wilderness. And all the time they talked, he was busy writing notes.
So while Bradford Angier was a city fake, the very well written material in his books was from the combined knowledge of many great bushmen!
That is why his books became so popular.
 
H4831 said:
A BC writer who made great fame for himself with all his outdoor experiences, but was actually a complete fake, was Bradford Angier.
He was an excellent writer and as one read his stories of how he survived severe winter nights in a makeshift lean to, your imagination took over and soon you were there, hearing every bang, as the frost cracked the green trees. But for Bradford Angier, this was all dreaming make believe, as well.
He had been a journalist in New York and after WW2 he decided to go north. He packed up his typewriter and his secretary, got to have a secretary you know and ended up in Puce Coupe BC, where he bought a cabin over looking the Peace River and they moved in.
He immediately started writing how to books on wilderness living and everything associated with it, from the cozy cabin on the river!
Through his New York connections in the literary world, he could get anything published that he wrote. And he wrote a great many books that were all highly acclaimed and huge sellers.
As a young guy greatly interested in the wilderness I read one of his early books and fell for it, hook line and sinker.
Then I started talking to people from Pouce Coupe and learned the truth! All of his books were written first person, that is, in the book it was he who had all these wilderness adventures and close calls in everything from face to face with grizzly bears to severe cold weather survival and everything in between. In reality he never left the cabin. But what he did as soon as they arrived was to visit every old timer and every trapper or bushman he could find and quiz them to no end about the wilderness. And all the time they talked, he was busy writing notes.
So while Bradford Angier was a city fake, the very well written material in his books was from the combined knowledge of many great bushmen!
That is why his books became so popular.
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I do believe that Angier had some hunting and maybe even backpacking experience in Maine and such places but yeah a lot of his knowledge was second and third hand and if you read a lot of his books, you'll find you're reading the same stuff over and over because basically he would publish the same book several times under different titles and covers. And his wife Vera got into that too. I didn't realise he was a big a fake as you say, but he did had a few quirks, like chronic ulcers and a terror of drinking untreated water, that showed that he wasn't exactly Grizzly Adams. I was a fan too, as you can see.
 
Mr. Angier. :) Yes, I loved his book: "How to Stay Alive in the Woods" To be objective, The Boy Scout handbook was and is better. I read a book he wrote about living in the BC wilderness with his wife. Not sure what the name of the book was. There is a segment in which he mentioned the local RCMP constable had a fireside chat with him. Apparently, his wife was alone & a guy was trespassing in front of his cabin. IIRC, the guy was in a boat(?). I don't quite remember the details, but from what he wrote, his wife drew her Colt Woodsman & fired a warning shot at him. The trespasser notified the authorities of the incident. Reminds me of an incident in the 1970s where a cranky guy shot at some canoeists who were participating in a long range canoe race from Banook Lake to the end of the Shubenacadie River system.


^This segment in his book got me to wondering about him.

I wonder if the .22 Hornet really is the survival gun par excellence as he alluded to in How to Stay Alive in the Woods?

An endless debate.

When I wanted more than Angier could deliver, I started reading Capstick's books.
 
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