I have finally read Horn of the Hunter and enjoyed it very much but not Use Enough Gun as much . Years ago I also read Death in the Long Grass .
Did Capstick model himself on Ruark ? Looking at photographs to me they are physically similar to my eye . Both lived in New York city when travelling to Africa initially. Finally they both died young probably due to lifestyle choices. Before there is any criticism this is an observation not a criticism .

Mark

I think Capstick probably did model himself on Ruark, and Capstick was certainly one of the best hunting adventure writ writers ers there ever was. I enjoyed everything of his I ever read (and certainly ditto for Ruark, even moreso), particularly with a historical bent.

That said, Ruark could walk the talk. 'Nuff said.

May be Capstick was modelling himself on Ruark, down to be drunk?

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
May be Capstick was modelling himself on Ruark, down to be drunk?

Add Hemingway to the list of hunting alcoholics

It is really funny.

I love reading about Africa, and have enjoyed practically every book I have read.

But, I never seem to get into either Hemingway or Ruark!!??

I have read all Capsticks books and love them.

Very enjoyable reading.

In fact, DEATH IN THE LONG GRASS is the one that got me to go hunt Africa!

I don't think Capstick modeled himself after Ruark per se... I do think he was keenly aware of Ruark, liked his work and his persona, but his work or life does not seem to me to be a direct copy. In point of fact, Capstick spent more time in Africa than either Ruark or Hemingway combined and probably multiplied many times over. The Ruark to Hemingway model is much clearer, however Ruark never touched on the 4th or 5th dimension as Hemingway talked about. Ruark reveled in what was, clearly, especially when he was in the middle of it, Hemingway's topics were much larger but told through relatively simple stories.

Capstick was great at re-casting existing stories (directly), and inserting his own experiences to tie them together. Much like when we talk about an historical event and then say, "I was there one time..." in an effort to insert ourselves into that time. He was not a novelist, more of what we might think of as an experiential travel writer today. His best books are Sands of Silence and PHC's Africa in my opinion. Death in the Long Grass has never gone out of print, is still printed by St MArtins, and is available right now at my local Barnes and Noble. No so much with Ruark.

All are great at what they did, and as I've said before here, most people interested in African hunting today should carry a miniature of PHC as a talisman, replete with monacle and beret..., he had a profound effect on the modern safari scene - like it or not.

I thoroughly enjoyed both Ruark & Capstick, but don't recall reading any Hemingway.

The subtitle for, "Use Enough Gun", was: "Ruark on hunting big game." It was put together after Ruark's death, allegedly to pay off debts he owed. Capstick's book on Richard Meinertzhagen (sp?), was, I believe, also published posthumously. Both books lack the touch of the master's hand. Hemingway's non-fiction is a much harder read than his fiction, but not nearly as boring as Theodore Roosevelt. It took me 3 years to wade through "African Game Trails."

I knew Capstick and his wife Fiona very well..Both good people and always friendly and knew your name....As in most cases, the nay saying came from jealously..Peter took a dieing industry and put it back on its feet big time and of that Im pretty sure, and he could damn sure get your attention in any one of his books..By the time he wrote his last book the price of an English double rifle had manifested it value ten fold, SCI had grown out of control, Africa was up to his ass in aligators trying to keep everyone hunting, money was everywhere and the times were good...It was mind boggleing, but I suspect those days are changing..We need Peter now more than ever.

I don't believe Peter coined himself after anyone but Peter, especially as his books were way better than Heminway or Ruarks to the average hunter anyway and when when it came to Africa..Peter could make the hair stand on end for those that had been there and made those that had not want to be on the next plane to an African safari..He did that. Hemingway and Ruark were probably enjoyed more by the literary crowd IMO and neither of which do I see as actual hunters, more adventurers IMO..

quote:

Originally posted by bwana cecil:
I thoroughly enjoyed both Ruark & Capstick, but don't recall reading any Hemingway.

Green Hills of Africa is an awesome book. I’ve probably read it a dozen times. If you’ve not read it, do so, if you have and didn’t like it, give it another chance.

I'm re-reading it as we speak.

I read them all and will revisit Green Hills. Capstick is what sent me over the edge even though I had a bug from young age, and Ruark never shot a rifle before Horn Of the Hunter and Hemingway was a rich frat boy that thought highly of himself. All were drunks. But they are all great in their own way. Like it was pointed out Capstick is still in print and in stores. That is the true yardstick of a writer. I would love to meet any of them but I bet Capstick was a hoot

Who cares?

Hemingway, Ruark and Capstick, and precisely in that order of talent and quality, IMHO, each wrote wonderfully and should be read carefully and critically, and enjoyed by all of us, each on his own merits.

With emphasis on reading carefully, and with the inevitable yet critical enjoyment.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
It is really funny.

I love reading about Africa, and have enjoyed practically every book I have read.

But, I never seem to get into either Hemingway or Ruark!!??

I have read all Capsticks books and love them.

Very enjoyable reading.

In fact, DEATH IN THE LONG GRASS is the one that got me to go hunt Africa!

Very glad you said this as I have every Capstick book and really enjoy them. I have a couple by Ruark and Hemmingway and frankly found them boring and repetitive in nature.

When I first read Ruark’s books, I thought “Wow this guy sure drinks a lot.” I did a quick Google search and discovered he died at the age of 49 from cirrhosis of the liver. He literally drank himself to death .

Besides these writers.
How many others in our lives
have had the bottle problem and died
from it?
My aunt had 12 kids, 6/6. She, her worthless husband, all the boys and 2 girls are dead from booze or related problems. Half younger than me. Finest auto trans builder I've been around was 39 when his cork was pulled.

Whole bunch of others I've watched do the same thing. I'd bet most of you guys have seen the same. Mighty glad I gave up drinking 30 yrs ago. Never did smoke.

George

Hemingway's "The Green Hills of Africa" is a good place to start, and then you can decide if you want more. From where I see, it's hardly dated even today.

Interestingly enough, during their lifetimes there was always the elephant in the room that Ruark was a "poor man's Hemingway"and even though they weren't good friends they did correspond as acquaintances. I once read Hemingway's take on it, and I haven't been able to find the quote (though I haven't tried very hard) but it went something like "We both own typewriters and the keys are in the same place...".

quote:

Originally posted by bwana cecil:
I thoroughly enjoyed both Ruark & Capstick, but don't recall reading any Hemingway.

Hemingway and Ruark were writers first and foremost, not hunters. Ruark did the most hunting for himself, and Capstick was a specialist guns and hunting magazine writer. Capstick was the most entertaining - but then we specifically are his audience.
Ruark was deeply influenced by Hemingway's writing and popularity. Hemingway and Capstick stand alone as originals.
Hemingway was a bona fide artist, deserved of his vastly greater status over the other too, yet his books like Green Hills of Africa or True at First Light (unpublished by him) are very much considered his lessor works.
(Despite the legend I am convinced that Hemingway was not nearly as much of a drunk as the other two, and I think it's been exaggerated a tad to fit the artist's persona. He had severe mental issues at the end of his life, that people seem to conflate with his drinking.)

You can tell an alchoholic by his fiction. Frederick Forsyth has his characters either open or finish a bottle of spirits on each page. .

quote:

(Despite the legend I am convinced that Hemingway was not nearly as much of a drunk as the other two, and I think it's been exaggerated a tad to fit the artist's persona. He had severe mental issues at the end of his life, that people seem to conflate with his drinking.)

I think this is accurate. Many people say he was a drunk writer - bullshit. Writing was the most important thing in his life, period. As was once said (about his writing) - he was as religious as an ascetic monk. Drinking came later - after the work was done.

As to his later life, the most important events for him were the plane crashes in Africa- especially the second. Those, combined with his early boxing, etc, no undoubtedly affected his brain. When you have clear fluid leak out of your ears onto your pillow after a wreck like that, you've got some major damage. I think this, combined with some familial depression, the changing of the ages, his own ageing, any potential FBI investigations (which there were, acknowledged after his death) made drinking the thing to do to get away from it all until he couldn't take it any more.

Capstick was certainly the most accessible
(especially to those whose English is a second language.) He became an almost comic book hero in his alleged exploits embellished with his purple prose. One very reliable source said he attended some annual PH meeting in Zimb with a tape recorder and captured a lot of adventures that he repackaged with himself as the central character. He really wasn't in Africa all that long compared to many and although he apparently had some real adventures along the way, he seems to have exaggerated what experiences he had in order to keep selling books and articles. Real PHs have had more time in the bush and write real less fanciful and more realistic and better books(See Buzz Charlton's Tall Tales or any of Doctari's adventures as recent examples.)
But as my reliable source said, "But he sure sold a lot of safaris." So his excesses were somewhat forgiven by those in the industry.
Hemingway was real Nobel prize winning author and less easy to read but a far better writer and intellectual. Ruark was novelist and columnist and a bit of a hero worshipper early on but again a better writer and very much a man of the late 40s and early 50s who did see himself as Hemingway's successor. Capstick was strictly a commercial writer and played the game very well and once he found his niche, he pounded it over again with knock off biographies and repackaged material. I did find the Sands of Silence his best and most honest book.

Reading Some Nobel prize winning authors is like watching paint dry. Others are entertaining and a page turner. Pick your poison all have merits

Speaking of Hemingway, has anyone read this?

https://www.harpercollins.com/...-sailor-soldier-spy/

It's available at my local library. I think I'll pick it up tonight.

quote:

Originally posted by WannabeBwana:
Speaking of Hemingway, has anyone read this?

https://www.harpercollins.com/...-sailor-soldier-spy/

It's available at my local library. I think I'll pick it up tonight.

Yes. It was unconvincing. Kind of like Hemingway’s Boat by Paul Hendrickson. But worth reading as part of the body of work on Hemingway.

The thing I liked most about Capstick was his ability to take the most horrible, deadly situation and turn it into a gut busting, hyperventilating laugh.

The two that come to mind are following up leopard with a shotgun and football helmet from Death in the Long Grass, and the puff Ader biting Wally Johnson from the Last Ivory Hunter.

I found Hemingway's 4th and 5th dimension a bit heavy going , but my wife says I am a simple man . My preference is Ruark because in Horn Of the Hunter I felt I was on safari with him . He also writes extensively about when the hunts did not progress smoothly as with rhino and greater kudu . In this sense he wrote a true narrative . My objection to Capstick is the blurring between fact and fiction similar to when Hollywood says a film is based on true events but completely rewrites what happened. Unfortunately this becomes in many people's minds , the truth . I would prefer they label it as fiction which it is .
I tried to be subtle about about their personal habits but others have been more direct

I feared I was mentally off as I really struggle to read Hemingway. Ruark and Capstick are good and somewhat enjoyable, but Hemingway makes me want to jump out the window.

I have read every Ruark and Capstick book. All entertaining and fairly well written.

I am also bumfuzzled by all the glamour heaped on Jack O'Connor. He was a frustrated novelist that could not make money there so he went to the magazines and hunting books. I have read all of his books, a few hundred of his columns. He is down to earth but not what I call a "great" writer. Enjoyable, but not along the like of Stewart Edward White or Hornaday or several others that wrote many years ago.

I guess I like them all except Ernest - he drags me through the muck to read his stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by mark smith:
I found Hemingway's 4th and 5th dimension a bit heavy going , but my wife says I am a simple man . My preference is Ruark because in Horn Of the Hunter I felt I was on safari with him . He also writes extensively about when the hunts did not progress smoothly as with rhino and greater kudu . In this sense he wrote a true narrative . My objection to Capstick is the blurring between fact and fiction similar to when Hollywood says a film is based on true events but completely rewrites what happened. Unfortunately this becomes in many people's minds , the truth . I would prefer they label it as fiction which it is .
I tried to be subtle about about their personal habits but others have been more direct

Fair enough. I’d posit Ruark took plenty of liberties as well when he told his own stories. He was a story teller after all. He is probably the most fun to read of the three.

Get a copy of For Whom the Bell Tolls and read chapter 10. It’s probably the best chapter Hemingway ever wrote. It’s the massacre at Ronda as told by Pilar. It’s symphonic.

All three of them were products of differant eras , and their writing style reflects that societal change. Hemingway doesnt really captivate me but I have a bunch of his short stories on the shelf.

Capstick probably started my African Hunting library when I picked up Death In The Long Grass when I was in high school in the 70's. Ruarks Old Man and The Boy was brilliant though.

I have always liked best A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.

Hemingway is respected as a writer the world over. Not just in outdoor writing but literature. He above others helps hunting and hunters in that regard. Ruark would be next and then Capstick. I enjoy reading all three.

I didn't get the yen to hunt Africa from any book! I was impressed at the age of six or seven years old by the mounted heads, and the stories told to me by the owner of the hardware store where my grand father did business for needs on our ranch in Coleman county Texas.
The man who owned that store had hunted Africa in the early 1920s and loved to tell this little rag-tag ranch kid of those adventures. His only son was not the Least bit interested in hunting of any kind, so I got the benefit of his hunts. He was also the person who first let me touch a real double rifle that he had used in Kenya so I was also hooked on double rifles as well because of Mr. Kelly! Have had Africa, and double rifles on my mind ever since.
I have a book by Hemingway, that was a gift that I have had for years that has never been opened, and the only thing I ever read by Ruark were magazine articles. Have read almost all of Peter Capsticks books, and liked them all. I think I will be buying Tall tales by Buzz soon.
All the top three of the afore-mentioned were alcoholics, but that had nothing to do with their books, but as some have already stated Capstick was responsible for saving a declining safari business, and should be thanked for that if nothing else! I enjoyed his books none the less!

Can't wait to get Buzz's book!

I know it's heresy but I like Capstick better than Hemmingway or Ruark.

Hemmingway is verbose and awkward to read and Ruark is always busy trying to apologise/justify/explain himself.

It took me many attempts to finish Green Hills of Africa. I liked Use Enough Gun but both authors are hard to read.

Capstick is easy to read and hard to put down. I don't recall him being caught up in self analysis or making excuses for himself.

Death in the Long Grass is my favourite hunting book.

I love Ruarks books specially Something of Value and UHURU ,Wilbur Smith has several good books ,Capstick is very interesting ,Hemingway and his Nick Adams are excellent too.
Cheers Juan

I see another (and unfair) Capstick bashing thread's in the offing. Must be to divert from Mark Sullivan (also unfair)...

I like them all