"Death in the Long Grass"

[kilbuc]

Jhack...thanks for your info and insight on Capstick. I read his 1st book and never read another. While he was a good writer he never met an animal that didn't try to kill him...LOL.

Also agree hunting zebra is a real challenge, they are a great game animal.

Amwell press has a whole African Hunting series. Most are limited editions but if you run across they are worth reading. some of the authors are Dyer, Herne, Foran, Hartly, Sanchez, Manners Tennison,Randel, Henley and more.

from the "Heartland of Wyoming"

 

[One Track]

I just finished Man Eaters of Tsavo last night. Great reading to say the least. I will have to order Ruark today. Very addicting. Much better than what's on TV these days.

 

[Widux]

I went to prep school with Peter Capstick in 1955-57-(Morristown School) we were not great friends but with a small class(17) we all knew each other well- he was something of an aristocrat-a snob but even in those days he was stalking things in the woods- lost track of him for many years till he was in SA after Rodesia and married to Fiona-he was coming to visit me in AK,after SCI, when he had his stomach problems -then again the year he got sick and died- he at least was FUN-as an adult not a stuffed shirt like many Badge & Sash wearers in SCI etc- he drasnk hard, lived hard ,and never took himself too seriously.

 

[paulc]

After reading this thread, and knowing i was going on a horseback elk hunt in CO by myself, i figured i should take a book to read. I went to Border book store in Grand Junction and was looking for Death in the Long Grass. They didnt have it but did have Death in the Dark Continent. I am about 2/3s thru it and am already looking forward to finding more of Capsticks books.

 

[Outdoor Writer]

Paul,
Geez, I could have suggested a really good book

-TONY

 

[Widux]

Such As?

 

[Outdoor Writer]

Widux,

It was kind of a tongue-in-cheek comment that PaulC will understand. I just finished writing HOW TO HUNT COUES DEER with input from guide Duwane Adams, and Paul asked me about it in another section. In fact, if you're interested, Jesse has a contest going for a free copy. Check out the thread at:

Win HOW TO HUNT COUES DEER book!

-TONY

 

[Empty]

Originally posted by jjhack@Aug 29 2003, 07:02 PM
Peter Capstick was an excellent writer. However he wrote his first two books before becoming a PH. He was working as a New York stock broker in the USA and took a trip to RSA where he, much like I  fell in love with the place. He found himself a job as a travel agent in Joburg and lived there doing that job and hanging out in the bars of Joburg with many PH's. Listening to the many stories told over drinks he began to write them as his own experiences. After a few years of this his popularity grew but several of the "real PH's" got wind of his work.

The publisher told Peter he would need to become a "real PH" before he could do his book tour in the USA. Far to many people were pointing the finger at his stories and claiming BS on them. I rememebr one writer whom I know personally that said He would have had to been hunting big game since he was 1 year old and now be 200 years old to have killed all the animals he claims. Yet another PH said "he must have to shoot an animal in self defense on every hunt to have survived that many charges."

Peter Capstick was the greatest writer of all time on African hunting. Just read the books like you would a Steven King novel and enjoy the story. Don't put too much importance on the "reality" of the story, or that Peter actually lived that life or those events.

He eventually became a PH in Botswana and RSA. His services were were in high demand because of his status. Turns out he was a decent PH after all but the good books were written long before he was a PH.

JJ

I agree on most of your post but Peter worked as a PH in Panama and, I belive, Nicaraqua as a Jaquar guide befor going to Africa. He originally went to work as an apprentice for Bob Langeveld, Uncle to Bobby Hansen who I assume you know, in Zambia.

He was a lot more into telling stories than into living them as you mentioned and Death in the Long Grass is about 75% about Bob's life and tales as related to Peter around the camfire for the 6 months he worked for him. I understand he was not very good with Elephants, preferring longer, over the shoulder shots.

I went to work for Luanga Safaris in 1980, years after Peter left, but the stories were still told about him. Some called him a charleton and a fake but their was more than a little jealousy that he could tell their stories better than they could.

A very interesting and entertaining fellow and a real boost for Africa.

 

[jjhack]

I have a book here someplace with Peters own telling of his beginnings in Africa. No place was there any mention at all of him being a Jaguar hunting guide in Panama. He went from NYC to Africa directly according to his own words. Realize that his own words were for entertainment not for facts, in many cases. So the Panama story may have fit in nicely with something else he was doing at the time. Also remember that he was a investment broker in NYC antil his late 30's when he went to Africa the first time. He made no mention of other international hunting. I would be interested in reading the text you mention about his jaguar hunting.

I also wonder about the timing of Jaguar hunting when compared with his age. Jaguars have been illegal to hunt for way over 25 years now. So when did this occur? Like many of the entertaining stories when you start to think about his age when he fist arrived in Africa and the amount of near death experiences he had in the many books when he was only 45 he would have had to been charged on every hunt! Many of the PH's who knew him made comments about his total's of game killed and the few years he actually worked as a PH the two can't match up properly. Nobody could have ever killed that much game during the era of his life he worked as a PH. He wrote as if he was alive and hunted during the Era of Bell, Hunter, or Taylor. Yet we was doing his hunting in the mid 60's and 70's not the Early 1900's!

You can be the judge for yourself. I have read and very much enjoyed his books. I think he is a wonderful captivating writer. I consider his writing much the same as Stephan King it's horror fiction and excitement but not necessarily true!

 

[Empty]

JJ

I don't want to get into a argument about this as I agree totally with your assessment of him as a hunter. I am relying on memory from my visits with him and stories I heard from other PH's that actually knew him as to the time frame but I do know that he worked for Luanga Safaris in the early 70's, 1972 I believe, and wrote Death in The Long Grass in the mid seventies.

This would put him in Central America in the mid to late 60's. Jaguar was open and flourishing during that time frame, being closed as you say, in the late 70's. Whether or not he was actually a PH for Jaguars is unknown to me, only that he was there and claimed to be a PH.

I don't think that he was ever a licensed PH in Zambia, at least not in the time frame that I am familiar with. A bartender, a lodge manager, a sometimes PH, all of that. An extroidinary story teller and a real gentleman, absolutely.

 

[Speckmisser]

While I've read many of his books, I can't call myself an expert on Capstick. However, all of the bio notes I've read on him refer to his start in Latin and Central America.

Doesn't necessarily prove much, but it wouldn't make much sense for the publishers to print an easily refutable lie.

Bottom line, I seldom take any writer's tales as more than that... tales. Capstick spun them as well as anyone. That's the value of any writer... their works, not their lives. If you wanted to dissect famous authors' works based on the reality of their lives, you'd have to dismantle many a pedestal.

Ruark, for example, was generally considered something of a jerk (at least after his initial success as a writer). The Old Man and the Boy, according to biographers, was hardly the autobiographic tome that many readers take it for. But that fact doesn't take away from its quality as literature... does it? I still think it's one of the best examples of the "hook-n-bullet" genre I've ever read.

Hemingway put himself in the lead character of most of his novels, but you'd be silly to imagine that the autobiography was flawless. There's a line between what the writer did, and what the writer would like to think he'd do. Very few stories can survive without embellishment. Green Hills of Africa, by the way, is an excellent read. Don't remember if I recommended that one before.

H.D. Thoreau wrote a wonderful book about Walden Pond, but he actually spent most of his time either bumming food in the Concord town common or at the home of his mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson (actually with Mrs. Emerson, since Ralph was often away). He hardly lived the life of isolation that the book implies. Does that fact lessen the impact of Walden?

Enjoy literature as stories. Leave the biographical detail and deconstruction to the handful of scholars who can't seem to find anything better to do with their intellect. To be sure, it can be a lot of fun to dig through a work to discover themes, constructs, and conceits. But most authors do not create their works to that end. The best of them write for the reader, not for the critic.

As Michener pointed out so well in his book, The Novel, most literary critics are simply frustrated authors. Unable to write their own novels, they take solace in picking apart the works of real writers.

 

[One Track]

Just started Old Man and the Boy last night. Very gripping. I was actually able to read and comprehend with the TV going, wife talking about something, and two little ones bouncing toys off my head. Think I'll wait until they hit the sack tonight.

 

[paulc]

Finished Death in the Dark Continent. Not a great literary work, but, it's subject matter is what interests me and hunting is what i am obsessed with. I have ordered Death in the Long Grass, and I am in the process of reading a book called In Defense of Hunting. Pretty dry but i will try to stay on it.

 

[bohunter3]

If anyone is looking for these books, half.com has a pretty good selection. Its another park of ebay for info. I just purchased "Death in the long grass" came to just under $20 with shipping.

 

[Widux]

This thread got me going again i reread Use enough gun and am about to read mor eof Ruark etc and maybe even some of Capstick--to bad he is gone- he was sort of an early day nuge- just a bit smoother around the edges.

 

[One Track]

I read the Old Man and the Boy. It was awesome. Makes me want to move to North Carolina and raise my kids there. Then, I was 2/3 of the way through The Old Man's Boy Grows Older. Unfortunately, I left it on an airplane. Never put something that you want in that pocket on the back of the seat in front of you. It's a big bottomless hole. Darn it. Both awesome books. I have rediscovered the joy of reading things other than magazines.

I need two more books to read. What do you think? Uhuru? And?

 

[Speckmisser]

One Track,

If you haven't yet, read Use Enough Gun. Uhuru is OK. I also liked Horn Of The Hunter.

 

[One Track]

Thanks. Will order those today. Early Christmas present to myself.

 

[paulc]

One track, same thing happened to me. i read alot when iwas young,but last 15 years i figured i was to busy. Went on a hunt by myself this year and knew i would have alot of time to myself so i brought that Capstick book. since then i have ordered another of his and am 3/4 thru it and have some others inthe wings. i ordered My Side of the Mountain (gonna have my kids read it) and i may read it aloud to my youngest one.
I am now going to bead 40 minutes earlier sothat i can read. My wife has taken it upalso. gotta get away fromthat TV and Computer screen.

 

[One Track]

I certainly have not missed TV. I did catch "Surviving Nugent." I usually get the kids to bed by 10p, then read until I fall asleep. Makes for some good dreams.

Good luck to those huntin' and fishin' this weekend!