http://www.jamestownsun.com/sp...mbering-robert-ruark



Remembering Robert Ruark
By Bernie Kuntz / Outdoors on May 12, 2017 at 6:47 a.m.


"Anybody who reads this book is bound to realize that I had a real fine time as a kid." — Robert Ruark, The Old Man and The Boy

Few people even have heard of him today, but in the 1940s and 1950s Robert Ruark was a famous syndicated columnist who wrote a dozen novels, including "Horn of the Hunter", which arguably, is one of the finest books ever written on African hunting.

He was born in poverty in 1915 in North Carolina, raised by his grandparents, served as a copy boy, then sportswriter and finally an assistant city editor for a couple East Coast newspapers. He served in the Navy during World War II, and began writing a column after the war.

Ruark made $50,000 a year with his writing while the average American worker was bringing home $3,000 or $4,000 a year.

But he was a hard drinker, a heavy smoker who lived the New York fast life. In 1953 his doctor advised him to take a break, go somewhere or he was going to die young. Ruark decided to go to Africa on safari. He hunted in Kenya and what is now Tanzania with legendary white hunter Harry Selby, and he wrote about it for U.S. magazines and his epic "Horn of the Hunter."

Then in 1954 one of Ruark's books, "Something of Value", a novel about Kenya, the struggles of British settlers, and hunting, and the bloody Mau Mau uprisings, became a bestseller. It is proclaimed to be Ruark's finest book. It eventually sold more than one million copies, and Ruark also received some $300,000 in movie rights to the book. He was indeed rich.

Ruark kept returning to Africa, still hunting, and enchanted by the land and its people. He tired of New York, so he and his wife moved to Spain. For 10 years he wrote a column for Field & Stream magazine, entitled "The Old Man and The Boy", which was later made into a book. It is a semi-autobiographical series of charming articles where his grandfather philosophizes and offers his wisdom and advice. It is one of my favorite examples of Ruark's writing.

Some people who knew him regarded Ruark as a bore and a drunk; others liked the man. He drank but he could write. He was terrified of Cape buffalo and famously said, "He looks at you as if you owe him money." He regaled the Cape buffalo with many paragraphs, describing the tenacity of a wounded buffalo: "He will soak up bullets that would stop elephants cold, and will keep coming. He can run faster than you can. He can turn faster than you can. He will hide if possible and take you from the rear ... He weighs in the neighborhood of 2,500 pounds. He will hook you with his razor horns — he charges with his head straight out and his eyes open — then he will go and pick you up from where he has thrown you and he will throw you again ..."

Ruark regarded Cape buffalo as a "fascination" and an "addiction" and a "hair shirt to my own conscience."

Ruark died in London of cirrhosis of the liver in 1965. He was 49. His books are still worth reading all these years after his death.

Thanks, Kathi. Ruark was, indeed, a fine writer. I still re-read Horn of the Hunter every year or so.

Something of Value and Uhuru are two of my all time favorite works of fiction and Horn of the Hunter, more than any other book, spurred me to travel to Africa. Like Ruark, it became my lifelong obsession after going there for the first time...

I've spent more than 60 hours reading through his papers at UNC, interesting stuff. And lived not far from Southport where all the Old Man stories came from. Spent many, many days there working on my own project. Consider me a Ruark aficionado.

I love the writing of Hemingway, and I think I've read everything once, but I read Ruark's over and over and.....

Interesting coincidence as I picked up a first edition "Something of Value" at an estate sale just down the street earlier this afternoon. Looking forward to reading it.

How many of his books has been movies?

Kathi,
Is there any chance to collect his book 'Horn of the Hunter'? or guide me where to ask?, please.
IH

quote:

Originally posted by IH:
Kathi,
Is there any chance to collect his book 'Horn of the Hunter'? or guide me where to ask?, please.
IH

Safari Press has it for $35.00, along with "Something of Value" and "Lost Classics"

quote:

Originally posted by Rune Hallgeir:
How many of his books has been movies?

As I remember, only Something of Value, but Uhuru was in the works to some degree.

quote:

Originally posted by drongo:

quote:

Originally posted by IH:
Kathi,
Is there any chance to collect his book 'Horn of the Hunter'? or guide me where to ask?, please.
IH

Safari Press has it for $35.00, along with "Something of Value" and "Lost Classics"

Thanks for guiding!, I got route to order!
Thanks & regards.
IH

The impact of Mr. Ruark's books in my life:

I was given The Old Man and the Boy when I was 12 years old and, later, The Old Man's Boy Grows Older. Growing up in the Pacific NW. I spent the greatest portion of my spare time as a kid in the field or on the lakes near my hometown, but I didn't have a grandfather or any other adult to mentor me. But I dreamed of the childhood Mr. Ruark wrote about. Later, I read the rest of his works.

After a stint in the military, I ended up living in the SE U.S.. I quickly adapted to the Southern lifestyle and had all of the experiences fishing and hunting in the South. I fished with a Cajan friend and did research in the swamps of Louisiana. I also fished for bass and bream the lakes and ponds of Alabama and spotted sea trout, redfish and sheepshead i the saltmarshes of coastal Georgia. I hunted ducks in southern Louisiana and coastal Georgia, squirrels and whitetail deer in Alabama and Georgia, bobwhite quail, marsh hens and snipe in Georgia. I did everything Mr. Ruark described in his book.

Now here's the fun part. I ended up working as a counselor treating chemical dependencies and trauma for veterans.

Ironic.

And then, out of the blue, without any idea or dream of ever doing it, a chance to hunt Africa was dropped in my lap. Hooked on that first trip, I made two more and finally shot my buff in Zimbabwe.

Mr. Ruark, thank you. And Kathi, thank you for starting this thread, it brought back some great memories.

Ruark more than anyone got me to Africa.

I love his writing and style and I've introduced many to his books and stories.


.

Horn of the Hunter is my favorite book on African hunting.

I have two copies. The first is the regular hardback I bought from Safari Press years ago. Mailed it to Botswana, where Harry Selby graciously personalized it, signed it, and mailed it back.

And I have a copy of the slip cased special edition SP did a few years ago...with Mr Selby signature as well.

Wonderful book.

Most of Ruark's books sit in the credenza behind my desk in my law office. And then there's my AR name. . . . . .

He is, by a large margin, my favorite writer. I've read Bell, Taylor, Hemingway, Nyschens, Harland and several more of the modern writers - once, maybe twice. I keep coming back to Ruark, however. I love his style and wit. I have Horn of the Hunter electronically, and I find myself reading it almost every time I make a long flight. I look through the movie selections, sigh in disgust, and then become lost again in Ruark's first African adventure.

I was in North Carolina 10 years ago visiting Sam and shooting hid double rifles. He very kindly presented me with a copy of the Old man and the boy.

Great reading.

One of my all time favorite authors of all time and one of my top 2 for the outdoors. What amazes me about Ruark was being a syndicated columnist at the time. He was producing 4-5 stories a week ( 1500-3000 words) along with novels. The Old Man and Boy is a fine a novel written about the outdoors as there is.

Use enough gun has always been my favourite.

Long before I went to Zim (87) I had Ruark's and Selby's Swahili "down pat"..........not much use in South East Queensland except among my Ruark reading friends.

Read pretty much everything of his I could get hold of.

Re-read Use Enough Gun so many times I can't read it anymore without knowing the next line. Capstick's Death in the Long Grass is the same with me.

I was surprised how much of the local lingo I actually understood when I got to Zim.

Never did "cough up the coin" for Grenadine's etchings

Read Hemingway..........but with difficulty.....gave away my copy of Greenhills of Africa.

He'd have been an interesting fella to share a fire with........that's if your liver could stand it.

quote:

Originally posted by Hutty:
One of my all time favorite authors of all time and one of my top 2 for the outdoors. What amazes me about Ruark was being a syndicated columnist at the time. He was producing 4-5 stories a week ( 1500-3000 words) along with novels. The Old Man and Boy is a fine a novel written about the outdoors as there is.

And to think he generated all of that prose using a typewriter.

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:

quote:

Originally posted by Hutty:
One of my all time favorite authors of all time and one of my top 2 for the outdoors. What amazes me about Ruark was being a syndicated columnist at the time. He was producing 4-5 stories a week ( 1500-3000 words) along with novels. The Old Man and Boy is a fine a novel written about the outdoors as there is.

And to think he generated all of that prose using a typewriter.

True

Then again, Tolstoy used a pen. And his wife rewrote War and Peace at least seven times during its creation. Whew....

I had blocked from memory a couple of Ruark's books (Grenadine Etching and The Honey Badger). In my opinion they were very disappointing. Kind of like Larry McMurtry who's Lonesome Dove series were great books and then he also wrote The Evening Star and Moving On, books that I couldn't even finish (which is unusual for me).

Kathi:

Thanks so much for posting this. I was "surfing" my favorite forums on AR and caught this. My mood was such that it drew me in, inexorably, as I've always found Ruark evocative, to say the least. I read and re-read the article and moved on to the other posters who share my feeling about his works.

A good break from work!

Dave Manson

This reminds me, time to reread "Old Man and the Boy". This book is in the top 5 of my favorites.
Doug

I love old memories, and some of the fondest are reading the set of his books the Old man brought home having had Mr.Ruark sign them, I will never sell them. They help keep the "African" dream alive

quote:

Originally posted by Dave James:
I love old memories, and some of the fondest are reading the set of his books the Old man brought home having had Mr.Ruark sign them, I will never sell them. They help keep the "African" dream alive

Awesome. Classmate at UNC?

quote:

Originally posted by twobobbwana:
Use enough gun has always been my favourite.

Long before I went to Zim (87) I had Ruark's and Selby's Swahili "down pat"..........not much use in South East Queensland except among my Ruark reading friends.

Read pretty much everything of his I could get hold of.

Re-read Use Enough Gun so many times I can't read it anymore without knowing the next line. Capstick's Death in the Long Grass is the same with me.

I was surprised how much of the local lingo I actually understood when I got to Zim.

Never did "cough up the coin" for Grenadine's etchings

Read Hemingway..........but with difficulty.....gave away my copy of Greenhills of Africa.

He'd have been an interesting fella to share a fire with........that's if your liver could stand it.

Pretty much my sentiments.