Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Peter Hathaway Capstick

ok toltegriz, you've uncorked that litany of fairly damming anectdotes. Not doubting your word, but can you elaborate? specifically, I guess I don't know your background or the source of the stories you mention. Thanks, jorge

I recall Griz hunted with Geoff and Russ Broom when PHC was a neophyte with them. We are all beginners at some point. I'm sure Griz will chime in.

Toltegriz,

I'd like to hear the details and more african stories. I have heard the PHC was a story teller as much or more than a hunter but that doesn't take away from the enjoyment of the story. One just has to be aware of what they are reading. Please tell us more of PHC.

I agree. With that littany of, "were you there's", I would respectfully ask you fill them in a bit. And, I'm not doubting you either but since you brought them up, give us some context and put some flesh on the bones.
Frankly, I don't expect and never have that PHC was a Jim Corbett, superman, or anybody else and it won't change my opinion of his story telling. It is almost as interesting that we have someone here with first hand knowledge of him in Africa.

Gdv

I would like to hear the details as well. The cat is out of the bag now so you might as well tell all before someone else reads between the lines and you get credited with a whole bunch of stuff that you never said.

Landrum

I rest my case, and no I was not there, therfore I will not listen to gossip or frivoulous BS about incidents that really don't matter..but if you have never screwed up then I allow you your chatise, otherwise put your rocks up, they serve no purpose.

I am out of town and have very slow dial-up. I will address this matter when I get back unless I have a lot of time on my hands.

Ray
It's clear you could be hit in the face with the truth and still believe what you want. It's not frivolous if what he presented as fact was in fact substantially fiction, insofar as Death in the Long Grass was concerned. Paul Harvey might call it the rest of the story, rather than just calling it gossip because you don't care. Since you weren't there, you should consider keeping your uninformed opinions to yourself.

Hatari
I hunted with Luangwa Safaris which was Capstick's first job in Africa. Other PHs around were Tony Sanchez, Joe Joubert and Paul Nielsen.

I have no interest in recounting the whole thing, but may eventually. I'm going to have to look at the book again to refresh my memory of what Capstick said. What got my dander up is someone implying I don't know what I'm talking about when in fact I was in the middle of the events which occurred. Someone else can decide about Capstick's later reputation. I'm just talking about what I know and if someone is interested in the basis for his first book, well, that's what is called background.

Griz: I certainly hope you didn't think it was me questioning your veracity. This is not the first time I've heard these issues discussed and from fairly unimpeachable sources, but since you were {sic} in the middle of it,I wold love to hear more details. It would make for fantastic reading at least for me. No doubt Capstick used "extensive literary license" in his story-telling, but nevertheless, I loved all of his books. Cheers, jorge

Griz,

Now I recall you were with Tony Sanchez! We talked about that sometime ago. I'd actually like to here more about that safari and hunting with Tony. Since that predates my African Adventures by more than a decade, I'm sure conditions were different and probably more rugged. I imagine the game density was better.

I suppose that everyone is different. But for me, the MOST relevant fact about PHC is that his tales, piled on top of those by Hemingway, Ruark, Hunter, Bell and many others, sparked me to hunt Africa. The earlier guys laid the groundwork. Capstick kicked me over the edge.

I would indeed find the �rest of the story� on his personal life and experiences fascinating, as I�ve found it on Hemingway, Ruark, Hunter, Bell and many of the others. A surprising number were scoundrels in one way or another. But those revelations would in no why diminish the effect that PHC�s storytelling had on my vision of Africa and my obsession to hunt there.

I will always be indebted to Capstick for the colorful word-pictures he painted of Africa, its many characters and African hunting. Those pictures, entirely factual or not, got me to cross the pond.

My point is that it is not the man that I am enamored with, but the tall grass and the grunt of lions that he brought to my doorstep.

In 1995, when I first hunted in Tanzania, we had a Emmy Award winning video cameraman with us. He was hired him for the full season to film hunts, and as it turns out, this man was also one of the video photographers who filmed Peter Capstick's African hunting series of videos.

In a nutshell, he told me, under no uncertain terms, that Capstick was a physical wreck and a chronic alcoholic who had the DTs so bad that they had to prop him up with beer or two at the start of every morning, and that Capstick fumbled around in the bush, and did not demonstrate anything that would even remotely demonstrate familiarity, expertise or competence.

AD

That story is true. He was a wreck in the last year of his life and I was told the same information by another gent associated with the series and in particular, the last video of a leopard hunt. His first videos were not bad in my view. In fact, they are my favorites. jorge

Timberline - well stated. As I have said before, knowledge of a writer (including the warts rather than pretending that none exist) adds to my understanding of what he writes by providing me with a more complete framework for understanding his words. Best, John

Allen-
I've watched all those videos Allen and he did not look well or at ease to me - furtive, nervous, and uncomfortable, esp. one of the last videos, the name of which escapes me now; maybe it was just me but I took it that he was suffering from his cardiac problems perhaps some degree of heart failure. Of course, it may have been fire-water too.

Gdv

Jorge........which were his first videos which you find the better ones?.....i havent seen any of them and wouldnt mind tracking down a couple. if some are better than the rest, i would like a point in the right direction.

as others have said, i love PHC's story telling abilities, even among pure fiction writers its hard to find someone who writes the way he did. i love his books and would like to hear the rest of the story since you were infact there Griz.....i to like finding out about the back stories......PHC was a hell of a story teller and it doesnt surprise me that the truth was embelished.....hell most good story tellers do the same.....on this note, how much of "Death in Silent Places" was true acounts of the individuals that were "biogiphied" in it by PHC?

I never met the man but from his videos, he seemed to be a nice guy. He used a lot of self-deprecating humor; not exactly a trait of someone who takes himself too seriously. He might have been a BS artist and he may have had all sorts of personal problems (show me 5 people on this, or any, board who do not and I will give you a prize) but there is no doubt that he helped the cause of hunting in Africa.

I have a friend who has hunted a little but the outdoors is not a passion in his life. However, he has read everything that Capstick wrote and now he wants to go on Safari. That seems to be a common motif with regard to Capstick's audience.

L

rattler: I think his best ones were the first three, Hunting the African Lion, Buffalo and the one for plains game. They were produced by Sportsmen on Film and Ken Wilson and are still available. The latter ones for rhino, elephant were not as good and his last one for leopard, it was striking how bad he looked when compared to the first videos. Sad really. jorge

many thanks!

PHC may have been a good professional hunter, but he was a poor -- and I mean really really poor -- writer. He completely and utterly screwed up the biography of a true character of the British Empire in Africa of the early 20th Century, Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen. Capstick's book, "Warrior" is virtually unreadable and is full to the very brim of BS.

I am a comparativly slow reader. I read Long Grass in one sitting, when it came out as a new book. I was worthless from lack of sleep the next week at work. Odd little articles like "Minisniping" and such brings to the forefront the fact that what we all want most is to be "Professional Little Boys" and that is all I have to say about that. Bill