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White Hunters:The Golden Age of African Safaris | 
 enlarge | Author: Brian Herne
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
Buy New: $10.30
You Save: $7.70 (43%)
New (23) Used (15) from $7.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 251542
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0805067361
Dewey Decimal Number: 590
EAN: 9780805067361
ASIN: 0805067361
Publication Date: May 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Ships immediately! Perfect and New! Has a publisher remainder mark. 2001 Paperback.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
A little over 100 years ago, East Africa was terra incognita to most whites: a land largely unmapped, sparsely settled by Europeans, and teeming with wildlife--from elephants to wildebeest, bongos to rhinos, and all manner of scarifying beasts in between. It was the hunter-adventurer's paradise, and by the early 20th century, a small, lionhearted clan of explorers and big-game hunters began leading safaris there for money. They became the legendary White Hunters of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, men who led manifold adventurers--including royalty, film stars, writers, and millionaires--in pursuit of the world's biggest, most dangerous, and most sought-after game. White Hunters is a nostalgic and densely-packed history of these men and their adventures, from the turn of the century until the 1970s when politics, a growing population, civil strife, and concern about species destruction intervened. Brian Herne has written a virtual and anecdotal Who's Who of White Hunters, crammed with the details of hundreds of hunts and the dozens of men who led them. This is no book for the faint-hearted or the politically correct. Despite Herne's insistence that his heroes were the first true conservationists, White Hunters is all about the testosterone-enhanced glory of killing big, beautiful things: "Clary fired, dropping his quarry with a side brain shot. The record-class tusks weighed 159 and 143 pounds each, a gigantic elephant...." On the other hand, a staggering number of hunters died in pursuit of their quarry--mauled, eviscerated, or impaled on the tusks of furious, vengeful beasts. Not so long ago lions wandered the streets of Nairobi. The politics of big-game hunting aside, the White Hunters' East Africa--wild, mysterious, unspoiled--is vanishing, and Herne has painstakingly documented an era that most readers will likely never know. --Svenja Soldovieri
Product Description
East Africa affects our imagination like few other places: The sight of a charging rhino goes directly to the heart; the limitless landscape of bony highlands, desert, and mountain is, as Isak Dinesen wrote, of "unequalled nobility." White Hunters is the story of seventy years of African adventure, danger, and romance. It re-creates the legary big-game safaris led by Selous and Bell and the daring ventures of early hunters into unexplored territories, and brings to life such romantic figures as Cape-to-Cairo Grogan, who walked 4,000 miles for the love of a woman, and Dinesen's dashing lover, Denys Finch. Witnesses to the richest wildlife spectacle on the earth, these hunters were the first conservationists. Hard-drinking, infatuated with risk, and careless in love, they inspired Hemingway's stories and movies with Clark Gable and Gregory Peck.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Special February 23, 2008
This was a book. It was received within two days in excellent condition. We are are very pleased with the service and merchandise.
 White Hunter by By Brian Herne October 23, 2007
This reasonably price book by Brian Herne about African hunting adventures is very interesting reading. The book is an excellent casual read because it is laid out in chapters which are independent of each other; the advantage being that one can pick up the book, open it to any chapter and read an action packed adventure without having to read previous chapters.
The conclusion to the book is a rebuff to anti-hunters. Big game decimation is not caused by hunting,but by destruction, poaching, civil war and human population explosion.
A GOOD BOOK!!
A Non - Hunter Review October 7, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I loved this book and I've never even hunted in my life. It is a fascinating picture of a time which is now gone forever. It's not just a list of hunters and how many animals they killed, although that is a big part of it. There is also a lot of interesting background on the society of the East African colonies at that time. Ironically, after initial excessive hunting, it was the White Hunters who did most to protect the wildlife of East Africa. After independence, rapacious governments made short work of what had been carefully nurtured wildlife populations. If you liked this book I'd also recommend "A Certain Curve of Horn: The Hundred Year Quest for the Giant Sable Antelope of Angola" and Martin Meredith's "The Fate of Africa".
My only complaints about this book are the paucity of photographs; I would have liked to see a lot more photographs. Secondly, this is a book almost specifically about East Africa, especially Kenya and Tanzania. Finally the photo of Biran Herne on the dust jacket must be about 30 years old!!!
Loaded with action and interesting characters September 4, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
White Hunters is an engaging and interesting read for anyone interested in the history of the safari trade. From cover to cover Brian Herne has assembled tales that enlighten the reader on subjects ranging from the colorful characters of a bygone era to wildlife lore and insights into the life of the African tribesmen.
With original photos and stories of such notable characters as Bror and Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton who's lives were portrayed in the Hollywood film 'Out of Africa'. To Carr Hartley who was dubbed by the American press as "The Toughest Man in the World" and whose career influenced the production of the Hollywood movie 'Hatari' starring John Wayne and Red Buttons. This book is jam-packed with true-life action and adventure.
Along with many other resources I used White Hunters as a research tool while writing Ivory Hunter. It was this book that prompted me to use Nandi tribesmen as trackers in the story in preference to the much more well known Masai.
Although many of the stories and descriptions are a bit brief, White Hunters is an entertaining and informative read for anyone interested in Africa and particularly in African hunting.
An Interesting History of the Great White Hunters April 15, 2005
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I found this book to be a fun read. Lots of details about the African White Hunters of the past and some exciting stories of things that happended during their hunts and careers. Some parts that recounted some hunting events with clients were pretty comical! Laid out in a chronologocal manner. Some sections seemed too long. I would recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn more about the characters and some insight on how they went about their hunting business in Africa.
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