Bill,
I just ordered this book to read while recovering from surgery and inspire me to get back in "sheep shape". Better be GOOD!

DPhillips

Hope your surgery goes well, and I wish you a speedy recovery.

Hubert Thummler, the subject of "Wind In My Face," celebrated his 75th birthday while we were writing it and still was tall, thin and extremely fit.

It took about 18 months to write the book because he kept popping off to Asia to collect one of the few types of mountain game that he hadn't taken yet. Despite his age, he still was able to get around in rough terrain at extremely high elevations.

I believe Hubert has taken a specimen of every type of sheep, ibex, markhor and chamois with a category for the SCI record book. As he says in the book, he joined the club's records committee so he'd have advance warning when a new category would be created.

He is a hunter's hunter and a true gentlleman. The trophy rooms (three) at his ranch outside the village of Tequisquiapan two hours northeast of Mexico City are even more impressive than the photos in the book. Because Mexico allows its citizens to import trophies that were legally taken in the country of origin there are species on display that I have never seen in a U.S. trophy room.

I hope you enjoy the book as much as I enjoyed working with him.

Although my name doesn't appear on it, I think you also will enjoy Soudy Golabchi's "Obsessed" when it comes out in 2007. Soudy truly is obsessed with mountain game, especially Marco Polo argalis. He not only holds the top two spots in the SCI book, but he also has taken at least another 15 to 20 of these beautiful sheep from Tajikistan.

Bill Quimby

I'll be on the lookout for Golabchi's book. Do you know who the publisher will be?

"I'll be on the lookout for Golabchi's book. Do you know who the publisher will be?"

Safari Press

Thanks!

Bill,
The books have arrived and "Wind In My Face" certainly looks promising from just leafing through it. Will probably get started on it in a week or two. Have Captain Haughton's "Sport and Folklore in the Himalaya" to read first.

Have Captain Haughton's "Sport and Folklore in the Himalaya" to read first.

I have a copy someplace. I read it so long ago I remember absolutely nothing in it. That's the problem with growing old.

quote:

Originally posted by billrquimby:
I have a copy someplace. I read it so long ago I remember absolutely nothing in it. That's the problem with growing old.

Or maybe its a problem of the book... Uninspiring enough to make you forget anything about it, except that it is taking up space somewhere in your library. I've a few like that.

I received a copy of this wonderful work thanks to Bill Quimby and Bill Berlat while the last was hunting with me here,wheh i opened it i coulndt close it its very ,very intersting you can almost feel the passion for hunting of H.T. ,juan

One thing I find really aggravating about "Wind In My Face" is the pictures in the book do not match the text. The pictures are sometimes up to 4 pages before the story related. I find it aggravating to be reading about a sheep hunt in Alaska while looking at urial ram or markhor. Why did Safari Press do that?

"Why did Safari Press do that?"

Dave:

I have no idea, but I doubt that it was intentional. Hubert's book has a lot more photos than most, and I suspect this presented a ton of problems for the art director.

Bill Quimby

"Bill, I just ordered this book to read while recovering from surgery and inspire me to get back in "sheep shape. Better be GOOD!"

Dave:

You've not said how the surgery and recovery went ... well, I hope.

Bill Quimby

Surgery hasn't gone so well. Not worse off than before, but not better, either. Had a spinal injection this week to reduce inflammation, but that caused it's own problems. Very frustrating. But I do think we'll get this figured out. I have been back at work for a while, but the pain is still there.

I kept finding other books to read before starting "Wind In My Face", I'm not sure why. I'm a big fan of the older exploration/hunting/scientific hunting tomes like the Roosevelt brothers' book, Capt Haughton's and was reading Frederick Adair's "A Summer In High Asia". Those tell stories of adventure and of blank spaces on maps when the world was big and the mountains new to many. There's a romance about those that just cannot be captured by someone out hunting to collect for collection's sake.

The Thummler art direction drives me nuts and really taints that book for me. In my opinion, the picture of the hunter and prey together should come as the reader finishes the article or that part of a chapter, not 3 or 4 pages before that story even begins. Hubert seems like a nice fellow too, who rolled with the punches. Too bad it happened to his book. I would have been fit to be tied.

<<<<<<<Surgery hasn't gone so well.>>>>>>>>

Dave:

I'm sorry to hear that. The few bouts I've had with back pain have (thankfully) only been temporary. I've had a painful and serious heart attack, but it was nothing when compared to when I injured my back by lifting things the wrong way. I doubt that I could stand such horrible pain day after day.

Hubert Thummler is tickled pink with his book. You are correct about him. He is a super guy and I am proud to know him.

The bromide about horse races certainly applies when it comes to reading. I am no fan at all of the earlier books. To me, dated writing style is a turnoff. There are some exceptions, though, and the Roosevelt brothers' "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" and "Jock of the Bushveld" are among them. Taylor, Selous, Sutherland, Corbet and many others who are treasured by others are not. I have their books, and have read them, but only because I thought I needed the background they provided. It was as if I were back in college, reading to pass a Humanities course.

Bill Quimby

Bill,
Thank you for the kind thoughts. I'm sure we'll get these back issues figured out and I hope to be back in the mountains when sheep season rolls around in August.

I agree with you about some of the early writing. I'm no fan of Selous, though it is probably the man rather than his writing that turns me off. Same with Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir. Kermit Roosevelt, on the other hand, I do enjoy his writings. Teddy Jr., not so much.

It is evident through reading Thummler's book that he is a good person and someone it would be a real honor to know. While reading the book, I have to constantly remind myself that he did much of the Asian hunts in his late sixties and early seventies. I'll be lucky if I'm walking if I live that long... That says a lot about the man's determination, commitment and pure grit to get out of a cozy camp, or even a cold sleeping bag and into the mountains to hunt sheep and goats. Shoot, even the rigors and frustrations associated with travel and lodging in many of the third and fourth world countries are too much to take for many during their prime.

I think it would be interesting to read a detailed 4-6,000 word story about any one of his hunts. While I thoroughly enjoy this book (other than the photo misplacement by my calculation), I think it would be interesting to read a "campfire tale" from him of one of these adventures. Something that allows the listener or reader to share the muscle ache, taste the dust, feel the vertigo and share the awe of spotting such a grand animal as the Kashmir Markhor or Altai Argali.

I certainly look forward to meeting you and Mr. Thummler at SCI.

"I think it would be interesting to read a detailed 4-6,000 word story about any one of his hunts."

That's the problem of writing a book about a man's lifetime of hunting. Hubert wanted me to cover his entire hunting career, and his book ran about 160,000 words. (Most are only 80,000 to 90,000.) Talking about a single hunt in great detail would have: 1) made the book run even longer, and 2) left the reader wondering "why this hunt" and not some of his many others.

Bill

I agree, I don't think you could detail a someone like Thummler's hunting life in a single book and have it as chapters of single hunts, unless it was the size of the Bible. No telling what it would cost at that length. But, it would be interesting to read or more in a Safari or other publication. I guess even then it would have to be cut down to 2,000-2,500 words.

I'm sure Mr. Thummler has some grand adventures to tell that just could not be captured with the constraints required in a book of the magnitude you were working on.

Keeps the adjectives down too!

You are correct about magazine articles. 2,500 is about the maximum word count.