I was a junior in high school when I discovered J.A. Hunter's first book at our little library in Yuma, Arizona, in 1953.

It, along with several movies of that era in which the white hunter was treated as a noble person, planted the seed that eventually led me to Africa again and again.

The text still was fresh in my mind when I found a first-edition Harper & Bros. copy for $2.00 in a used book store in the 1960s, but I bought the book and set it aside.

When I came across it yesterday, I sat down and read it nearly non-stop from cover to cover. It is just as good today as it was all those years ago.

The other J.A. Hunter books do not compare with it, at least what I remember about them. It's been at least ten years since I read them, though, and that's something I intend to correct.

If you haven't read "Hunter" recently, you may be pleasantly surprised when you pick it up again.

Bill Quimby

Reading your post made me get my copy out. I had not done this in years. Good photo of those 140 pound tusks. Thanks for the post, it made me re-read a wonderful book.

Outstanding book, one of my top 20...

Bill. I have three of Hunter's books: Hunter, Hunter's Tracks, and African Hunter. I thought "Hunter" was the best and now that you mention it I will get one out (I have several copies) and read it again. My first one was a Xmas gift to me in 1985 from Bill Tarrant. A 1st in excellent condition. One of those books one never considers disposing of.

I know this site is devoted to hunting and shooting books, but there are some truly fine novelists that keep me occupied. Scotland's Ian Rankin is my latest "find."

1953!!! I can't remember much of any of that year.

I agree gentlemen. While Capstick's books stimulated interest in African hunting in the last 20 years or so, it was Hunter's book that renewed interest in African hunting following WWII. And unlike Capstick, Hunter was the real McCoy. One of my all-time favorite shooting books. I reread it every few years and it is always as good as the first time.

"1953!!! I can't remember much of any of that year."

Unfortunately, I've reached the age when I almost remember more of that year than I do of 2003. I remember most of my high school teachers and friends, my first steady girlfriend, my first car, and my first job that paid more than 50 cents an hour, the minimum wage at the time. I especially remember the signing of the armistice that ended the Korean War, because kids I knew who were just a year or two older than I had died over there.

Bill Quimby

I read that book in jr high school, I was impressed by the detail in which he wrote.

Most of the calibers he mentions did not hit home with me until 20 years when I started collecting rifle cartridges and actually held them in my hands.


Yes that book is a good one.


Cal30