| Horn of the Hunter |  | Author: Robert Ruark
Publisher: Safari Press
Category: Book
Buy Used: $36.00
Used (7) from $36.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 1840567
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.8 x 1.3
ISBN: 0940143097
Dewey Decimal Number: 799
EAN: 9780940143098
ASIN: 0940143097
Publication Date: September 1989
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The story of the author and his wife's two-month safari in East Africa in the 1950s. Ruark's philosophies are intertwined in the hunting stories to make unforgettable reading.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
Real Africa at it's best... October 6, 2008
Ruarks style and attention to details make this book leap off the page. Visions of the African landscape appear in your mind. Ruark describes the sights, smells, and the very face of Africa. Also the foreshadowing of his alcoholism is recounted time and again. I can't wait to read it again!
I've walked in Ruark's footsteps September 29, 2008
I love both Hemingway and Ruark but, despite the fact that Hemingway has won more literary accolades, I enjoy Ruark more. He describes himself as a 'second rate' Hemingway. I don't agree. I think Ruark was, in fact, the real deal. I have my questions about Hemingway.
Ruark is never politically correct whether he is talking about war, politics or hunting. He tells it like he sees it and does it and, having been there myself, many times, it has the feel of reality. Even in Ruark's time he recognized that hunting, in many American circles, was becoming 'de classe' and regarded as passe by the elitist Left in America. As such, Ruark reckoned, perhaps correctly, that big game hunting was on its last legs.
He couldn't have known of the great resurgence of hunting since his death. As it turns out, hunting is not only satisfying and profitable but--partially because it is profitable to nations that might otherwise be disinterested in their own wildlife--it has promoted the conservation of wild places and wild animals all over the earth. At the same time, Ruark could not have predicted the power of the the idiotic 'animal rights' movement, although he would have scarcely been surprised. Ruark recognized that the more urban societies became, the more isolated from nature--and reality--the same societies would necessarily be.
I also enjoyed the part in Ruark's book in which he is nearly killed by a zebra. Predictably, Ruark sees the humor and irony in the event.
Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico
Another good read February 8, 2008
Well I love old african stories. Here is another that I will read again and again. This is the type I like most. Just facts and no lets make it a story stuff. This is almost like reading a journal or diary. I loved it and bet you will too.
Horn of the Hunter March 9, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I loved his stories of Africa! The book took me back to a better time when being on safari meant you could be killed by very dangerous animals or reptiles but humans were not quite as high up the list in the danger catalogue.
Bridging the gap between Hemingway and Capstick we had Ruark. January 1, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
"Horn Of The Hunter" is one of the best stories about African hunting and wildlife that has ever been penned. (My Opinion) Robert Ruark may have written between the two era's of Hemingway and Capstick, but when it comes to writing about Africa he took a backseat to neither of them and if you have read my other reviews you know that I have nothing but praise for them both.
Ruark takes us on safari with him and his wife Virginia. The copyright is 1952 and though I couldn't find a definite time for the safari it was during the post WW II era. It is reasonable to assume that it would have been a short time prior to the copyright. He describes in great detail the African wilderness and wildlife along with the discomforts of insect bites and muddy river bottoms. Traveling through the Tanganyika wilderness in a Land Rover called Jessica with a professional hunter named Harry Selby, Ruark takes us with him on a grand adventure.
Unlike many prominent writers Ruark not only tells of his successes, but his failures as well. Throughout the text Selby compares Ruark's marksmanship with a lady client named Harriet Maytag and Ruark's responses to his comments add depth and humor to the text. There are some spectacular long range shots taken, but there are also some clean misses at both long and short range. He admits his fear of Cape Buffalo and tells us of his love for wing shooting. He talks of Selby who is as sqeamish with snakes as a teenage girl, but is the living portrait of abosolute courage when following up wounded and dangerous animals.
Ruark's delightful humor is on nearly every page as he describes various bits of unorthodox lore. Such as painting a juvinile baboon with flourescent paint to frighten off the band or Selby's advice to him to survive a buffalo stampede by shooting one of them and climbing on top of it to avoid being trampled.
When I finished reading this story I was as sad to see it end as Ruark was to leave Africa.
All in all this is a readers delight and will be a treasured gem in any hunters library.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
