I am a big fan of Peter Capsticks books, and I own quite a few of them. I am fascinated with his adventures in the bush as a white hunter and a game officer. I know that he died in 1996, but does anyone know exactly how he died. If anyone can help me I would greatly appreciate it. It seems I can't find this info anywere.

I read he died on March 13, 1996 in South Africa, after cardiac surgery. I heard it was a heart bypass operation but have no evidence to that effect. In this last videos you can see him wheezing and short of breath.

I was told by a good friend who has been to Africa twice that Capstick is not well-liked over there. That he knew how to drink with the best of them, and would pick the brains of the PHs over rye, scotch or whatever was being drunk. He then would pen the adventures, inserting himself as the primary actor, basically making money off others, while never actually having done any of the things he wrote about.

Part of PHC inserting himself as the main player when recounting others' deeds of derring doo-doo is true, part false. What isn't true is that his work isn't well-liked over there. I doubt he ever made a PH rich, but he sure eased a lot of their monetary worries. A significant proportion of the African trade comes from hunters who got bit by the bug via Capstick.

quote:

RupertBear: A significant proportion of the African trade comes from hunters who got bit by the bug via Capstick.

I'm sure that is true. J.A. Hunter's biography "Hunter" restimulated interest in African hunting in the early post-war years, Capstick's books and the film "Out Of Africa" had a lot to do with the surge over the last couple decades.

Friends Capstick hunted here too and everydody likes him he hunted wild boars with knife and our great dogos in the same area i hunt choele choel my wifes granfather was a ph there and he remember him ,he even hunted jaguars in Brazil so he hunted a lot was an officer in Tanzania,and perhaps he exagerated a bit but HE WAS A GREAT HUNTER .Ihunt daily and i respect him as a ph and as a writer who show a lot of people our way of living.JUAN

I knew Peter Capstick. Not well, but well enough for my granddaughter and I to be houseguests at his home in Pretoria. Actually many of the posts on this thread are correct: Capstick drank. He was always looking for a good story, and he may have exaggerated a bit. But he was a jaguar hunting guide in South America and a professional hunter in southern Africa. (He also was a stockbroker on Wall Street and a member of a prominent New Jersey family.) His work provided him plenty of grist for his writing. It is the way he wrote that set him apart from all other outdoor writers of the late 20th Century, including O'Connor, Keith and all their peers. Capstick was literate, very readable, and highly entertaining. I was among the first to compare him in print to Hemingway and Ruark, and nothing has happened to change my mind. As for his being responsible for the popularity of the popularity of hunting in Africa, I agree, but with this reservation: Without Safari Club International and its conventions and publication, all of which were founded and nurtured by C.J. McElroy, most would-be first-time Africa hunters would not know how to get there.

Bill Quimby

thornell...I will attempt to answer your question, It is my understanding that he died from a pulmonary embolism...basically a blood clot that formed post surgery. This is quite common post heart surgery, and can ususally be taken care of at the hospital through different methods. I can only think that the hospital he was in was not prepared for this complication.
Whether he was "real" or not, I have all of his books and have spent countless hours reading and enjoying them. May he rest in peace.

In the book Warrior the last book of Capsticks finished by Fiona his wife she said that Capstick like Meinerzhagen saw combat ,does anybody knows that ,I recomend reading in death at lonely places the chapter of pig sticking in argentina in warrior he again speaks of pig sticking the ultimate dangerous hunt .You are invited Bill .Juan

Bill Q. and Juan. I have read many of Capstick's books. Tell me again the title of the ones you refer to regarding his hog hunts.

BillinTheWild:

"Pig Sticking Made Personal," a chapter covering his time in Argentina, appears in Capstick's Death in a Lonely Land. There apparently also is a reference to pig sticking in his "Warrior, The Legend of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen," although I don't remember seeing it. I guess I'll have to read it again.

BillQ

have not ever seen or heard any claim by Capstick of military service, although he did write of having some run-ins with marxist insurgents at one point in Africa.
Rich

Rich , in the introduction by his wife Fiona to Warrior she makes reference to him having known combat. " And it easy to see why Peter , a man who lived his for the open spaces, who having known combat, and who was a seasoned hunter.........." But like you I don't recall him ever having mentioned it. He was a great story teller and I have enjoyed all of his books,I also have several of his video tapes and does seem to be someone who you would have enjoyed sitting down with. Kevin

I re read safari and i believe is the best for the phs and clients alike i dont guide in Africa but the book was very useful and intersting.Iread the Capstick did the military service in the Army ,and he visited various war places during his safaris ,i also read he carries an imgram mac10 in his safaris in certain places too .Juan

Gentlemen, I had the great privelage to have had several long conversations, face to face with PHC. I've read all his books, and have all of them autographed. I also have all his films on the SPORTSMEN ON FILM tapes. I found him to be a very warm and friendly person, with a gift of gab, and a way with words, whether talking, or in his writeings. I've also talked to several people who have hunted with him, and knew him well.

PHC was from the state of New Jersey, where there are people who know almost everything about wildlife, or nothing at all. PHC was one who knew almost all there is to know, and the rampant animal rights folks from New Jersey know absolutely nothing about wild life.
I spoke with Volker Grellman, and his wife Onkie, who both like PHC very much! Volker told me, that Peter had more knowledge in his head on African Elephant, and African animals in general than anyone he had ever known. Some of the happenings Peter talked about, that I have seen branded as lies, were confirmed, to me, by Gordon Cundill. This was Peter's story about a charge by a lion starting from about 20 yds. It seems the lion took the first shot that wounded it,through the head but didn't hit anything vital, then in the charge it took nine more shots with a 375 H&H, and a 500NE double rifle, before going down for the count. When you consider a lion can travel 100 yds is less than 4 seconds, this is amazing because the 500NE only hit the lion three times as the ammo was bad, and there were three hang fires, and one dud, from the 500NE! That leaves six rounds out of a bolt action Mauser rifle in a desperately close charge. I can tell you that bolt must have been as hot as a coal of fire working that fast! If Peter is such a dud, then I think there are a lot of duds in the field that sure couldn't make six hits, for six shots with a bolt rifle in a 20 yd charge of a lion. That, not only takes nearve, but skill, my friends.

If the reader of PHC books will be honest, he will note that a full 90% of the dareing-do he tells about was about someone other than himself, which he makes clear in his writing. The hairy happenings he tells on himself, are usually, how he screwed up, and almost got into real trouble!

In the films where PHC is hunting, he seems a little hoaky, but which of us would do better with a camera looking down our throats! PHC was not an actor, and was expected to come off as if he were one, on camera. Personally, I think he did quite well, considering his being a hunter, and writer, and not an actor!

Sadly, for me at least Peter Hathaway Capstick has washed down the Choebe River, and his books have come to an end. He will be remembered in the way your conscience will allow, as a very good writer, and fine man, or as a drunk, who was a thief of glory! I prefere the first discription, a man who could make you follow his camp fire smoke all the way to Heaven, and hear the lion roar in the African night, and smell the mopani smoke!

I for one will miss him, in fact I already do miss him. Have a Peter!

"If the reader of PHC books will be honest, he will note that a full 90% of the dareing-do he tells about was about someone other than himself, which he makes clear in his writing. The hairy happenings he tells on himself, are usually, how he screwed up, and almost got into real trouble!"

Well and truly said! I can think of no contemporary hunting writer who writes as well as he did -- including any of the three authors (Craig Boddington, Capt. John Brandt, and me) who have received the PHC literary award from his widow.

Capstick's detractors reek of ignorance and jealousy.

Bill Quimby

Mac, It is great to hear some good things about Capstick, rather than negativity. I like you have really enjoyed his writing and know that there will unfortunately never be another Capstick adventure to read and marvel over. I have not read every book of his yet,(I think that I lack two) but I have really enjoyed the ones I have read.
Like you say he was no actor, but still very imformative in his videos which I expected. I believe that he is remembered and missed by many.

I can´t understand why some people would ever start "badmouthing" about PHC ... we should all be gratefull to him since he left us all one of the most beautiful writings about Africa and its wildlife ....

Did he liked to drink ? Did he lied about the real protagonism he might had had in some of his stories ?

Who cares !! Who could care less !!!

All good things he did in life (which were quite a lot indeed) allowed him to rise quite higher than the rest of human beings ...the fact that he might had had some attitudes that someone could want to criticize, only reminds us that in fact he was a human being - and IMO these eventual criticizable attitudes would not diminish even a little bit his fertile work....

As MacD37 wrote:
"Sadly, for me at least Peter Hathaway Capstick has washed down the Choebe River, and his books have come to an end. He will be remembered in the way your conscience will allow, as a very good writer, and fine man, or as a drunk, who was a thief of glory! I prefere the first discription, a man who could make you follow his camp fire smoke all the way to Heaven, and hear the lion roar in the African night, and smell the mopani smoke!

To PHC !!!!!

quote:

Peter Hathaway Capstick died in Pretoria, South Africa just before midnight on March 13th 1996 from a thrombosis following cardiac triple by-pass surgery. At his request, only his wife Fiona and her sister attended a private cremation ceremony. Fiona scattered Peter’s ashes over the Chobe River in Botswana with elephants and a herd of Cape buffalo in attendance. Peter will now remain a part of the land he loved so much.

He passed on way too young. A loss of a great man with tremendous talent.

Now after a sucesfull safari with a Dr from California i open the forum and see these good words to PHC and im glad to see this ,i took guing as an adventure and now is a business for me ,but im my free times in my camps i always have one of the Peters books ,i believe most of his things and if you hunt and stay the necesary time in the wild you too will have a lot of adventures to writte about ,i only expect that Bill Quimby write a book of him Bilo is waiting Bill- Juan

",i only expect that Bill Quimby write a book of him Bilo is waiting Bill- Juan"

I approached Fiona Capstick a couple of months ago and she is not ready to work with anyone on Peter's biography. As she is a friend, I have no choice but to respect her wishes.

Bill Quimby

I used to know the late George Haas who was a senior editor at Outdoor Life. George was Peter Capstick's editor. George thought Capstick was a great writer but he said they found out that alot of his first person stuff was not true so they dropped him.

George said he was then picked up by The American Hunter Magazinme. The person who knows the truth about him is Geoff Broom because Capstick worked for him.

He was an excellent writer but it is certain he was no Jim Corbett, Jimmy Sutherland or Walter Bell.

VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Ted:

I hadn't thought of Haas for years. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he died. Time flies.

Geoff Broom certainly would know the truth about Capstick's capability as a PH, as would Capstick's clients. However, the negative comments apparently have not been coming from those quarters. Typically, his loudest detractors have been professional hunters who have not read his books.

He was not a Corbett, Sutherland or Bell, to be sure. They wrote about their many extraordinary personal experiences in a style that was popular in their time.

Capstick wrote in a highly readable and entertaining contemporary style, mostly about the experiences of others. He sometimes may have stretched the truth a tiny bit, but nobody ever fell asleep reading his stuff.

I cannot say that about Sutherland.

Bill

Dear Bill,

Peter Capstick was an excellent writer and I hear the best selling hunting author of all time. I heard Death in the Long Grass sold 800,000 copies.

But what Capstick did is he took the experiences of other PH's and wrote them into his first book (the one that made him famous) in the first person as if they were his own experiences when in fact he wasn't even there for many of them.

That is what irritated other PHs, having their own life experiences stolen from them without being credited and then being used by Captick as if they had actually happened to him.

Correct me if I am wrong because I haven't read either for years but it seems to me Capstick writes about spearing buffalo as if he had done it himself. Actually it was Baron Werner von Albensleben who speared the buffalo and Capstick scalped the story. The Mangatti still do it. I have seen them.

As far as clients not complaining. There weren't many to complain. If my memory serves me correctly, and these days it seldom does, Russ Broom told me they hired Captick as a PH but had to stop using him because he was shooting too many female buffalo. It took them a while to realize he didn't have enough experince to know how to sex them.

Capstick got caught and sacked by Outdoor Life and then he changed his style. In the books he wrote after "Death in the Long Grass" he began quoting people and crediting them with their own experiences.

Sutherland wasn't a writer at all nor was he a PH in the modern sense. I don't think he ever guided any clients anywhere. He was an ivory hunter. But he was the first man into many of the most remote and lonely parts of Africa. He went alone in the days when it was very dangerous. He had only his own wits and his rifle to pull him through. He was successful until he was eventually poisoned.

Who would I rather be. I would rather be Capstick. He died in bed with money in the bank. Sutherland died alone and murdered as a penniless old man in the heart of remotest Africa.

Who was the better man - Jimmy Sutherland. No question.


VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Ted:

Capstick certainly never exprerienced the adventures Sutherland and the other explorer/ivory hunters did. No one today could match their feats, if only because the time in which they lived allowed them to do what they did.

But we're talking about writing. As you've said, Sutherland was not a writer. Capstick was.

Bill

Capstick, Hemingway and Ruark were all excellent writers. There is no need that any of them also be PHs.

VBR,

Ted Gorsline

I've enjoyed Capstick's books for many years. I first became acquainted with his stories when I was a kid and they were published in, I think, Outdoor Life magazine. I couldn't wait for the magazine to arrive each month so I could read his story.

As I've matured I have gotten the distinct sense that he, to put it nicely, embellished his stories a fair amount. I don't know how much was fact or fiction but I do know that I have had a burning desire to hunt in Africa since I was a kid as a result of reading his stuff and for that I am thankful. I was also introduced to much of the older Africana through his writings.

There is one other thing that I can say about him. When I was in college in the mid 1980s, on a lark, I called St. Martins to see if I could get ahold of him. The girl at St. Martins told me that every few months they would collect all of the letters and so forth that had been sent for him and ship them over to PHC in RSA. I sent him a letter and a book to be signed and a few months later I received the book back directly from Peter with a nice inscription as well as a two page letter. He even gave me his home telephone number and address and the phone number of his editor if I ever wanted to get in touch with him. I corresponded with him a few times after that and he always responded with nice letters and postcards. In his letters he always made it a point to answer any questions that had been asked and you got the sense that he actually read all the letters he received and responded to them personally. Regardless of what one may think of him, in my experience, he was very much a gentlemen who treated his readers very well and seemed to really appreciate the fact that they bought and enjoyed his books.

This nigth after guiding partrige hunting im very very tired ,the life of a guide here in Argentina isnt easy imagine guiding in the amazon ,in central america or working as a game ranger in Tanzania ,we must be honest a ask ourselves if we could tolerate that as PHC did ,h hunted a lot in all the world and even with knives as he did here and i have been talking a lot with his guide now 76 years old .JUAN

Dear juanpozzi

Capstick may well have killed pigs with a knife. That's not where the criticism comes from. It comes from taking other people's experiences and using them as his own in his first book.

The best pig hunter I ever met is a guy named Tony Morell who works for state Parks in Florida. His job is to remove feral pigs from the parks. I don't know how many he has caught now but 20 years ago it was more than 250.

He hunts them like you do by swarming them with dogs and then dashing in and grabbing them by their hind legs and tying them up.

Pigs cannot turn in their skin like a bear.

One day his dogs caught a large sow in the midddle of the everglades at night. He grabbed her hind legs and lifted them and she started "wheel barreling". That is she pulled forwards with her front feet and went into deep mud where Tony's boots got stuck. He had to follow to keep from losing his grip.

Then she stopped started pushing backwards and Tony was too stuck to back up. He fell on his back under her. He had gto lift his feet and wrap them around her neck to keep away from her tusks. His face was now facing up towartds her bum. She got scared and shit on his face.

Fortunately for him, his friends soon came with more dogs and they got her off him and tied her up. Best pig hunting story I ever heard.


VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Ted i only said the PHC lived most of his books perhaps not all ,i read the tale about spearing buffalo and he said that that Baron did the spearing but he tried two times too ,do you know he was a tanzanian park ranger i believe thats is true ,in most of his books he writes about another adventurers with great admiration ,on respect at wild boar hunting i believe the only real dangerous are big boars ,here every year there are a lot of accidents ,and i believe is the purest form of taking a wild boar althoug i taken them with every weapon including pistols and bow .Juan

"Then she stopped started pushing backwards and Tony was too stuck to back up. He fell on his back under her. He had gto lift his feet and wrap them around her neck to keep away from her tusks. His face was now facing up towartds her bum. She got scared and shit on his face"

What a wonderful story!

Bill

Dear Bill,

I never cease to be amazed at what really does happen on hunting trips. It defies the imagination. The best stories I have ever heard come from Johny Matthew's Little Portage Camp on Lake Memesagemesing od "Sag"in northern Ontario.

The stories originate from a bunch called "The Window Watch Gang" because the way they hunt deer is to sit at a table playing poker, drinking rye whiskey and watching out the front window of their cabin for deer.

Such a bunch of characters. One of them named Tom Cooper made a living scraping grates in the sewage system under the city of Toronto. There were a couple of good very hearted Indian guides one of whom had been a very good boxer, a guy named Peter who you could not keep from getting lost even if you tied a bell on his neck.

The deer drives always started at dawn but normally don't end until midnight because half the guys were lost in the bush and need finding.
Its a "Bindle Stiff Meets the Wilderness" kind of place.

Even the dogs were characters. Johny had an old deer dog named Buckshot who was so old he couldn't stand up anymore but he still liked to hunt deer. So Johny used to wrap him in blankets, put him in a cardboard box, and take him by boat to a place where he knew it likely the dogs would drive a deer past.

Old buckshot would lift his head out of the box and howl as the young dogs ran past within hearing. For a little while he was young again. Then Johny would take him home to his other box beside the wood stove.


VBR,


Ted Gorsline

Ted:

Your recent post only cinches my conviction that you should do more writing. You made The Window Watch Gang come alive in just six paragraphs.

Incidentally, I used to hunt on a friend's ranch in the Texas Hill Country where we easily could have shot our four-deer limit from his front porch, but never did.

Bill

To Old Buckshot !