I wish I'd have had the chance to buy PHC a beer. I probably him owed that. To cut a long story short, I met my wife, got my carreer and a bunch of other good things because of Death in the Long Grass, The Maneaters of Kumaon by Corbett and magazine article by Boddington about a hunt in Botswana. Nothing like a little inspiration to sharpen your thinking and put some fire in your belly. If PHC bent the truth some to turn out a good story, I'll forgive him. That has been happenning since the Gilgamesh Epic was first written down and it's not like he was claiming to be writing history.

Cheers,
Dean

I think it's to be expected that people will try to run Capstick down. He mentioned in his own writings that Professional Hunting is an extremely jealous profession. The fact that we see constant attempts to denigrate him confirm that, at the very least, he knew that much about what he was writing.

But don't the people who run him down know they're fighting an uphill battle? Say what you want about him. You can not deny his influence. I'm going to Africa this year, and in a large part it has to do with what he wrote. In that respect he did more for African hunting than people who snipe at him for alledgedly appropriating experiences that weren't his.

If he did so, then I thank him. Otherwise I'd never had heard those stories.

quote:

Originally posted by juanpozzi:
I read most of PHC books and i liked all of it,even Warrior that was finished by his wife Fiona .My wife grandfather met him while hunting here in la patagonia exactly at Choele Choel where we have a hunting Lodge and he respects him a lot he participated in all the pig sticking safaris,with great courage ,and he was the first to popularized the safaris in Argentina so we deserve him a great respect.Juan

In any case, I think that we have enough evidence from people who knew him that he wasn't the B.S. artist some people would like to make him out as.

Peter sent many of us in our dreams to Africa... Then many of us realized that dreams can and do come true...
I even had the privledge to speak to him about Africa for an hour during a phone conversation when he was living in Naples, Fl.

Mike

Exactly. The man's been dead for 10 years now. Looking back on his life, he accomplished a lot. Real accomplishments.

I think we should have the decency to remember him for those things.

I was just a lad when I wandered into the St Petersburg Florida public library and asked for a book about hunting.

A wisened ancient librarian handed me a book by John Pondero Taylor and within a week I'd read through it and had also discovered J A Hunter.

Within a year I'd read every book that library had on African hunting (probably 50 of them) and I still hadn't hit the tender age of 13.

To say that it had a profound influence on my life would be a gross understatement.

I've been a lifelong hunter and shooter ever since and at the still tender age of 55 find myself starting to prepare my life for my first trip to the Dark Continent.

Yes... Peter Hathaway Capstick is a marvelous writer and probably can capture that heart pounding fear and excitement better than any writer that ever lived and I LOVE his books but read them ALL!!!

You'll love them and you'll go to Africa and you'll live that dream and you'll die happy one day.

Life should be treated as an adventure. You only get one life... Live it to the fullest.

$bob$

quote:

Originally posted by China Fleet Sailor:
I think it's to be expected that people will try to run Capstick down. He mentioned in his own writings that Professional Hunting is an extremely jealous profession. The fact that we see constant attempts to denigrate him confirm that, at the very least, he knew that much about what he was writing.

But don't the people who run him down know they're fighting an uphill battle? Say what you want about him. You can not deny his influence. I'm going to Africa this year, and in a large part it has to do with what he wrote. In that respect he did more for African hunting than people who snipe at him for alledgedly appropriating experiences that weren't his.

If he did so, then I thank him. Otherwise I'd never had heard those stories.

quote:

Originally posted by juanpozzi:
I read most of PHC books and i liked all of it,even Warrior that was finished by his wife Fiona .My wife grandfather met him while hunting here in la patagonia exactly at Choele Choel where we have a hunting Lodge and he respects him a lot he participated in all the pig sticking safaris,with great courage ,and he was the first to popularized the safaris in Argentina so we deserve him a great respect.Juan

In any case, I think that we have enough evidence from people who knew him that he wasn't the B.S. artist some people would like to make him out as.

I don't think it is jealousy at all. While watching PHC in his "Botswana" safari there were two key scenes that spoke volumes. One was what I call the Hippo scene. While filming a hippo got out of the water and was probably 75+ yards away. PHC did nothing short of crap his pants and jump into the truck. The PH standing next to him was not even a tiny bit phased. I have no doubt what Peters account of the situtation would have read like.

The next is what I call the table scene. They are all sitting at the table and the PH gives Peter a intro into his thoughts on game management or something along those lines. It was excatly the same as when a kid gets called on in class and wasn't paying attention. Peter rattled off 5 minutes of pure BS that had nothing to do with anything trying to keep up the perception of him being an expert.

I respect Capstick's talents. Verisimilitude was unfortunately not one of them.

This is a man who never set foot in Africa before 1968, yet claimed to have killed over 800 elephant.

He was a great storyteller, masterful. Just don't mistake all of his stories for the truth.

quote:

I respect Capstick's talents. Verisimilitude was unfortunately not one of them.

Boring hijack on.... Thats an interesting statement (to me and probably noone else!), mrlexma. I would have said that it was. I am probably wrong, but I have always thought that verisimilarity with respect to writing just meant an author 'painting' an extremely accurate representation of reality with words. Much like Robert Bateman and other popular contemporary wildlife artists do with paint.

I didn't think the representation had to be based on a factual event. I have probably been using the word incorrectly for years....sucks to find out you are using pretentious ultrasyllabic words incorrectly!

Hijack off...

Canuck

quote:

Originally posted by mrlexma:
I respect Capstick's talents. Verisimilitude was unfortunately not one of them.

This is a man who never set foot in Africa before 1968, yet claimed to have killed over 800 elephant.

He was a great storyteller, masterful. Just don't mistake all of his stories for the truth.

He is not the only one.

Canuck, one cannot claim what PHC did, in his "non-fiction" writings, and expect it to be taken for the truth. After all, the truth will out. Much of what PHC claimed for himself he heard while bartending in Botswana, or read and co-opted from the works of others. Come on now, how about fifty elephant, or maybe a hundred, for God's sake? Don't insult our intelligence, please!

Although naivete apparently knows no bounds.

500grains, as for PHC's company in fictional and self-aggrandizing writing, well, now, let's not open that can of worms!

Still, the man could turn a phrase and pen a great yarn! And that's a talent we could use more of these days.

quote:

Originally posted by Canuck:

quote:

I respect Capstick's talents. Verisimilitude was unfortunately not one of them.

Boring hijack on.... Thats an interesting statement (to me and probably noone else!), mrlexma. I would have said that it was. I am probably wrong, but I have always thought that verisimilarity with respect to writing just meant an author 'painting' an extremely accurate representation of reality with words. Much like Robert Bateman and other popular contemporary wildlife artists do with paint.

I didn't think the representation had to be based on a factual event. I have probably been using the word incorrectly for years....sucks to find out you are using pretentious ultrasyllabic words incorrectly!

Hijack off...

Canuck

Actually, you're using the word correctly. Verisimilitude simply means like the truth. Or in the case of books or movies, enough like the truth to the point that the audience suspends its disbelief. So keep up the pretentiousness.

I have the Botswana safari video and remember that scene. I also remember another scene in his White Rhino video where he made a bigger deal about an approaching bull than anyone else made. If "crapping his pants" is the description for what he did around the hippo, he at least pissed them around the Rhino.

And I recall in his writings that he didn't think the White Rhino was any more dangerous than a small dog (Scottish Terrier, if memory serves); that the Black Rhino was the real hazard. Only a couple of people had been stupid and clumsy enough to get caught by a White Rhino in his books. Yet in the video he was playing up the danger posed by the White.

So he wasn't perfect. He definitely wasn't consistent. But so what? He was a writer, not a CPA. In any case, you may have heard the old saying that consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. I'd rather have had a beer or shared a campfire with him than most of his critics.

I'm not saying that I don't like his books or videos for that matter. I find them very entertaining.

The man was clearly a BSer though.

Before my first trip I read everything on Africa I could get my hands on, all of Capsticks and Ruarks. I was probably hooked on Africa before I landed on African soil! There probably is some redundancy in some of Capsticks but still a very enjoyable read. I continue to buy every book I can on Africa and add it to my library. Doyle posted a great llist of books that I would recommend as well. One thing I would also reccomend is on every trip or Safari, keep a daily journal and write as much as you can down at every break in the action or in the evening. Sitting in front of the firplace on a rainy day re-reading my experiences in Africa brings everything back to me in much more vivid detail. What animals I saw, what we ate, the stories around the mopane wood fires. It is no substitue for being there but will make the time pass more quickly until I get to return,,, August 08, wish it was sooner, wes