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Hunting Trips of a Ranchman & The Wilderness Hunter | 
 enlarge | Author: Theodore Roosevelt
Creator: Stephen E. Ambrose
Publisher: Modern Library
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy Used: $2.12
You Save: $16.83 (89%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 333760
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 832
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 0375751521
Dewey Decimal Number: 799.2978
EAN: 9780375751523
ASIN: 0375751521
Publication Date: May 12, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
It's no secret that America's most bully president was also its most bully outdoorsman and conservationist; what's often forgotten was how beautifully and authoritatively he wrote about the wilderness and his considerable experiences there. These two pre-White House narratives--Ranchman was originally published in 1885, Wilderness Hunter eight years later--are rich and vivid. The former chronicles Roosevelt's sojourns in the Dakota Badlands; the latter is an extended love letter to the pleasures and challenges of outdoor life. So what if some of his 19th-century ideas seem politically incorrect by the standards of the next century--magnificent prose is still magnificent prose. "Nowhere, not even at sea," writes the future First Hunter in one haunting passage, "does a man feel more lonely than when riding over the far-reaching seemingly never-ending plains ... [but] after a man has lived a little while on or near them, their very vastness and loneliness and their melancholy monotony have a strong fascination for him." By comparison, the isolation and weight of the Oval Office must have seemed like an afternoon stroll in the park.
Product Description
Written during his days as a ranchman in the Dakota Bad Lands, these two wilderness tales by Theodore Roosevelt endure today as part of the classic folklore of the West. The narratives provide vivid portraits of the land as well as the people and animals that inhabited it, underscoring Roosevelt's abiding concerns as a naturalist.
Originally published in 1885, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman chronicles Roosevelt's adventures tracking a twelve-hundred-pound grizzly bear in the pine forests of the Bighorn Mountains.Yet some of the best sections are those in which Roosevelt muses on the beauty of the Bad Lands and the simple pleasures of ranch life.The British Spectator said the book "could claim an honorable place on the same shelf as Walton's Compleat Angler."The Wilderness Hunter, which came out in 1893, remains perhaps the most detailed account of the grizzly bear ever recorded. Introduction by Stephen E. Ambrose.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 His love of nature shines through November 26, 2007
A hunter I am not, but these two writings by Teddy Roosevelt are a wonderful read for those who love the outdoors, nature and the remoteness of wild areas that are dwindling at such a rapid pace if not already gone in most places.
T.R. was a keen observer of his surroundings and the animals which inhabited these lands. His writing style is highly contagious. The reader is with him every step of the way whether it is in the prairie, up the mountain, in the valleys or deserts chasing deer, antelope, elk, bear, and cougar or simply gallivanting in the countryside during the 1880's.
Adventures were many in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana and all points west. Broken bones and bruises were commonplace to our future twenty-sixth president but the man was as tough as nails. Although he mostly hunted for food, he did occasionally hunt for trophy game.
The man absolutely admired the wilderness and it shows when he put pen to paper. His conservation efforts are still with us today.
Many people think the openness of the west is nothing but desolate, empty nothingness. It's all in how you perceive "nothing" to better appreciate the value of space.
 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman & The Wilderness Hunter November 25, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The prose of TR takes me back to a time in America, a time before my own, but a time that I so wish I could have experienced in the saddle alongside TR. While the prose may be somewhat dated, as an avid reader and author I find it refreshing and relaxing. I use the present tense of the verb because I never seem to tire of reading and reading TR's sagas of life on the plains and the pursuit of big game. Today such pursuit is mostly for sport and I am but one of many who enjoy this great adventure, even to its fullest. Life on his ranch in the Badlands however required such pursuit for sustinence and as such required patience and persistance in far greater excess than many of us today possess. Many who choose to pursue elk, mule deer or antelope could do far worse than to read and absorb the lessons of one of the great plainsmen of history.
Wonderful Read December 25, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I felt strongly enough to review this book from actually reading and owning the two original books which comprise this one collection.
Teddy Roosevelt came west after his first wife died to heal and in the plains he found the spirit which made the gentleman who would become a world leader.
Hunting Trips of a Ranchman is an early work of Roosevelt finding his way in writing. It is a wonderful historic work of the showing of the sportsman over the market hunter in America with all big game species detailed on his hunts, and, how Roosevelt felt that the virtue of freedom was based in Americans learning to experience stalking game, living in the wilds all to create the citizen soldier.
The Wilderness Hunter is my favorite for in this Teddy touches upon the prose of his soul and is the best work I have found so far in crafting a beautiful stories in the experience of hunting.
I have read this book twice and it is still the one I reach for to carry along in times to keep me company.
Wonderful Collection of Short Stories October 24, 2000
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This collection of Roosevelt's hunting trips and adventures puts you right out there with him, on the wild plains. The clarity of his descriptions and the easy way he takes you through his experiences has made this one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. If you enjoy the wilderness, stories about the old west or just relaxing with a good book, this is a great choice.
Essays on animals and hunting trips by the future President July 30, 2000
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
Roosevelt purchased two cattle ranches in present-day western North Dakota, and many times went out to hunt for sport or for "meat for the pot."Hunting Trips of a Ranchman in effect provides essays on the description, behavior, habitat, and survival of several species known to the prairies and the distant forests and mountain ranges. He talks of wildfowl (grouse, etc), elk, buffalo, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, black-tailed or mule deer, and finishes with Old Ephraim, the grizzly bear. All of these books are good for armchair readers who have never been to the western wildernesses or prairies, where these animals can be viewed with perseverance and patience. Roosevelt speaks of elk as the most noble of the deer family and perhaps the most majestic of all animals (which I tend to agree). He speaks of the incredible speed but also remarkable (and sometimes fatal) curiosity of the pronghorn, who are able to outrun any foes and keep in the open to see them at long distance with their excellent vision. However, they run in a straight line to provide a fairly consistent target for a good marksmen. He speaks of the enjoyable hunting of both kinds of deer, the difficulty of approaching the haunts of the bighorn, and his big finale, one of the best accounts of hunting grizzlies that I have ever read. Roosevelt's respect for the bear's ferocity is manifest, almost amounting to an admitted dread, which shows his good sense. If you are interested in the American wild, are curious about the habits and habitats of these large species, and are drawn to the hunting and outdoor mentality of the President who helped strengthen the national park system, this will be an entertaining read for you.
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