doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Peter Hathaway Capstick

I recommend Christopher Ondaatje's Hemingway in Africa, The Last Safari. He's a Canadian, brother to Michael who wrote The English Patient.

First editions? Dear god. I priced Hemingway's on my last trip to London in that sacred store just west of Piccadilly Square.

So far I have been able to aquire the following 1st editions:

African Game Trails by Teddy Roosevelt
Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Teddy Roosevelt
Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter by Teddy Roosevelt
A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa by F.C. Selous
Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa by F.C. Selous
Pondoro by John Taylor
Nearest the Pole by Adm. Robert Peary
Something of Value by Robert Ruark

There are many, many more on my list. I also have a book titled Hunting with Hemingway. It was written by his daughter after his death. The stories in it are from audio recordings taken during conversations between Hemingway and his friends at Hemingway's house. I found it a very entertaining book to read. It puts the reader in the room with Hemingway and his friends as they recount their various exploits from around the world.

Wonder if those recordings are available? It would be great to listen to him having a bull session discussing hunting amongst friends and one would assume a few libations.

One hears all kinds of uncharitable stuff said and written about Capstick. Some or all of it may be true but the poor chap is no longer here to defend himself so until someone does for Capstick what Capstick did for John Taylor in 'A Man Called Lion', my view is let him lie and let his books do the talking.

Capstick has left a legacy of exciting, pro-hunting, well written books based in a time much overlooked and disparaged by those nostalgic for the Edwardian era.

I read a very good biography of Henry Morton Stanley recently. Seems much of what was said and thought about him during his life was untrue, that much thought about him since his death was untrue but that he was guilty of making up certain stories about himself. None of that detracts from the frankly unbelievable achievements Stanley pulled off. He should have died a hundred times and should never have had the opportunity to do what he did.

Likewise, Capstick may have embellished, copied, borrowed, stories, drank too much, whatever. His body of work, in my opinion means he deserves our forgiveness for his human frailties and our admiration for what he produced.

+1 Smallbore, probably as responsible for the re-emergence of hunting in Africa as any man alive and I for sure would love to have spent a night out with him, best, Mike

+1!

If you've sat around a camp fire listing to shooting stories, you've probably heard tall tales equal to anything Capstick embellished. What makes his stories so great, is as much the way he tells them. A scoundrel he may have been, but a hell of a writer he is.

Unlike Stanley, Capstick died relatively recently. That means there are a lot of living "witnesses" to what he did or did not do. Writers are, to a certain extent, public personalities. (That would even include you and me, Small Bore--although with significantly smaller audiences than people like Hemingway or Captstick.) We therefore open ourselves to charges of "bull hockey!" if, for example, you describe a driven shoot during which you had 4 birds dead in the air at once when your loader saw no such thing, or I talk about how my bird dog never lost a crippled pheasant when various hunting companions remember otherwise.

On this side of the pond, among those of my generation who served in the military, some claim to be Vietnam vets when they are not. Living off "stolen valor"--now that Vietnam service is seen as something honorable rather than a subject best left undiscussed. When I was attending a course at the US Air Force Special Operations School, one of the guest lecturers was Dr. Larry Cable. Cable was a university political science professor with a record that included a couple of tours in Vietnam as a Marine, and was a recognized expert on unconventional warfare. And I must say he was an impressive lecturer. Unfortunately, at least some of his academic background and most or all of his military service--particularly having served in Vietnam--turned out to be phony. Worse than fooling the Air Force, he'd even succeeded in fooling the Marines, and had also lectured at Quantico! I can't recall that any of us would have quarreled much with what he had to say about guerrilla wars etc, but the fact that he had not done most of what he claimed made him a fraud.

Hemingway wrote great fiction about hunting in Africa. I'd have no quarrel with Capstick and his legacy if he'd done the same, attributing the adventures he describes to someone named Alan Quatermain or Francis Macomber. No question he spent time in Africa, and he could have used that experience to make his stories real without making himself the center of them and presenting them as nonfiction.

L.Brown, Hemingways worst book, Green Hills (and he is my favourite author) is about Africa (but it is not fictional), Capstick undoubtedly borrowed stories from others, and if you watch any of his videos he admits the same !! How this has ANYTHING to do with pretending to have done military service somewhere baffles me ??!! best, Mike

Not sure where this interesting thread is going, Mike. Capstick was an entertaining writer. He placed me right in the picture. The only question I have is did he do what he said he did? Is it fiction or non-fiction?

I have a video or two (VHS format) in which Capstick shot a cape buffalo and an elephant. Another hunter involved in the video production company shot a lion. They seemed to know what they were doing.

The buffalo was taken with a .375H&H bolt action rifle. The skinner brought out the heart (somewhat like a football), which had a hole through it. IIRC, the buffalo was quartering facing toward the shooter, somewhat to the shooters left. If a line were drawn up the left foreleg, the shot hit (dust) a few inches up into the body along that line. It took off running, so I guess the shoulder was not hit or broken.

The elephant was taken with a double rifle. He probably mentioned the caliber, but I do not remember. It was something pretty large - the muzzle flashes looked like beach balls.

The other shooter took the lion with a bolt action.

It seems that he did some of what he wrote about.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_13?url=search-alias%3Dmovies-tv&field-keywords=peter+capstick&sprefix=peter+capstic%2Cmovies-tv%2C539 for several videos.