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.
Hemingway may have been a functioning alcoholic, but he had hemochromatosis, which has depression as a symptom, as did his father, who also committed suicide. (As did his brother and sister too.) Hemingway also had over ten electric shock treatments just prior to his death, and was a mental wreck. He shot himself four days after being released. I don't think drink had much to do with his death. Or boxing.
His grand-daughter, Margaux, commited suicide in 1996.
I think that a lot of writers see themselves as performance artists, as well as chroniclers. And for those who write for the entertainment of others, I can't find much to fault with this approach.
I read, some years back, some feature articles by Capstick. Also read a couple of Hemingway's books. I didn't care for Hemingway's style of writing, but I get it that so many do. Even at that, i could still live in the story, as it was written.
I have had older friends, now gone on, who talked kinda like Hemingway wrote. Literary influence is a big thing in many lives.
And if Capstick wrote, or tried to write, like some of his literary influences, so what?
As to the alcohol and drug use of prominent people in the public eye? Nothing new, and I doubt that it will end. How are those in the public eye substantially better, or more perfect than the rest of us? Looking at the mirror as I write this.
And often, those who live large lives fail in large ways. Google "happy valley set" for an alternative view of 20th century life in East Africa.
