Another selection from the Capstick Collection. The author was a reported/hunter that accompanied Teddy and Kermit Roosevelt on their 13 month safari that resulted in African Game Trails.

It is a collection of stories and thoughts by Foran on his 6 years as an British soldier turned opportunistic hunter in roughly 1904 to 1910. He tells a variety of stories and anecdotes about hunting in this time period and his experiences meeting Selous, Sutherland, Bell, Stigand and others. He also discusses his thoughts on the various animals he encountered. He had very low regard for rhino's and called them stupid and dumb. He had average regard for lions and buff but was enamoured with elephants. He had spent time, as a soldier, in India and was obsessed with killing a tiger and tells a story about a tiger/water buffalo fight that is a bit hard to believe as well as a lion/cape buffalo story that is equally hard to believe.

I came away with a couple of observations and feelings about this book - 1) he wrote 21 other books on various subjects but seems to be a very average writer. He was not particularly descriptive nor eloquent. I could not "get into the hunt" while reading his stories, 2) he talks mostly about himself and his thoughts and comes off as a bit of a know-it-all. He had a gun bearer that gets killed by an elephant and he waxes eloquent about the gunbearer, but basically got the guy killed, 3) I am not a John Taylor fan due to his style and embellishment (my opinion), Foran seems to be a bit the same way - he just lacked credibility in my view based on some of his descriptions and discussions, 4) his facts were a little off on dates and times for the various guys he encountered - such as the death by natives of Stigand and other adventurers by Bell.

Overall, I cannot in good faith recommend that you read this book. It is an interesting "period" piece but lacks quality writing (unlike Selous), lacks authenticity (unlike Bell and Sutherland) and leaves the reader not being more enlightened for having read the book. Honestly, I expected much more from this guy as he was the correspondant on Roosevelt's hunt. I assumed he would do a better job with his own book.

I rate this a 5 (I am being generous) on the dogcat scale and do not recommend it unless you are a serious "period" reader.

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he talks mostly about himself and his thoughts and comes off as a bit of a know-it-all

Well, this smacks much more of a particular popular recent contemporary author.

I much prefer the books of "period" authors. Their experiences will never be matched, especially those of Foran. His accomplishments and experiences were legion, any one of which is noteworthy of itself. Sorry you don't like his "style". And lacks credibility?? Perhaps he was just alot more modest than people today.

I also recommend "Elephant Hunters of the Lado" by Foran.

I have another of Foran's books, "A Hunter's Saga" and will pick up "Elephant Hunter's of Lado" just to see if I mis-interpreted Foran. The overall tone and seemingly outlandish tales were not to my liking.

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dogcat: The overall tone and seemingly outlandish tales were not to my liking.

The truth is usually much stranger than fiction.

Foran was:
a graduate of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst (British equivalent of West Point)
veteran of the Boer War, WWI and various campaigns in Africa, India and Ceylon
a policeman in East Africa
a journalist in America for 4 years
Associated Press correspondent for the Roosevelt expedition
editor of the Singapore Straights Times (Asian equivalent of the Wall Street Journal)
hunter/traveler in Burma, Ceylon, India, USA, Mexico, Canada and throughout Africa
an ivory poacher and collegue of almost all the early famous settlers and hunters in Kenya and East Africa
founder of the Adventurers Club of Chicago
a worldwide lecturer
and author of 22 books.

Despite all this, Capstick states that Foran was a modest and private man. If you don't like his style of writing, which is fairly typical of his day, that is one thing. But to imply that he was some kind of posuer or wannabee is ridiculous.

Adventurers Club of Chicago
http://www.advclub.org/index.htm

quote:

Originally posted by fla3006:

quote:

dogcat: The overall tone and seemingly outlandish tales were not to my liking.

The truth is usually much stranger than fiction.

Foran was:
a graduate of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst (British equivalent of West Point)
veteran of the Boer War, WWI and various campaigns in Africa, India and Ceylon
a policeman in East Africa
a journalist in America for 4 years
Associated Press correspondent for the Roosevelt expedition
editor of the Singapore Straights Times (Asian equivalent of the Wall Street Journal)
hunter/traveler in Burma, Ceylon, India, USA, Mexico, Canada and throughout Africa
an ivory poacher and collegue of almost all the early famous settlers and hunters in Kenya and East Africa
founder of the Adventurers Club of Chicago
a worldwide lecturer
and author of 22 books.

Despite all this, Capstick states that Foran was a modest and private man. If you don't like his style of writing, which is fairly typical of his day, that is one thing. But to imply that he was some kind of posuer or wannabee is ridiculous.

Adventurers Club of Chicago
http://www.advclub.org/index.htm

Not much I can add to that, you said it all, Ahmen