In fairness, "Warrior" was not completed when Capstick died. His wife put it into print, probably to raise some money. Can't fault her for that.
As for alcoholism, it is a progressive disease. Even if Capstick was a falling down drunk late in life, he could have been a normal and rational person, even if a heavy drinker, while completing most of his exploits.
I wonder about a lot of things. He says he researched 200 books about maneating lions before writing "Long Grass." Did he? He says he killed two buffalo with a spear. Did he? And if he was too chicken to follow up 13 wounded lions, why didn't the safari company fire him after the first half dozen or so. If he was a fake, why draw attention to this possibility by exposing John Taylor's Great Tana River Raid as a fake? It would be interesting to hear from any of his former safari clients.
I wish I could write like that man.
Excellent post.
Robert Ruark drank himself to death. So did F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Hemingway's death may have been by suicide on the death certificate, but booze should have been on the list of contributory causes (after all his years of boxing, I have to wonder if he might have had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy?).
The only thing that's kept us from the sad spectacle of those great writers being on video in their dotage was the fact that videography was not ubiquitous in their day.
