Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Peter Hathaway Capstick

Great post. Thanks for capturing my thoughts better than I could have.

I second that.

He was a great writer and story teller, who just happened to be a PH.

Writing, evidently, was his big talent, shining brighter than his PH career.

But, he entertained millions with his books and stories.

What's not to like.

DF

Tink, I have read most of Capsticks books and articles going back to the time he says he guided in South America and don't ever rememberi him mentioning his being a Green Beret officer in Vietnam ? As a Vietnam vet I am interested in hearing his stories on that part of his life.
You knew him during that time, what can you share with us? Where and when did he serve ?

I don't remember Peter ever claiming such experience in print.

I was given to understand that he died shortly after surgery because of some sort of complications. Your post seems to imply he committed suicide. I'm open to the possibility of my having been misinformed.

WHAT THE F UCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT????
Peter died of a blood clot as a result of open heart surgery . Ernest Hemingway comes to mind regarding your comment...

Hemingway of course. Check the thread. Clearly I am speaking of EH. PHC died on the table if memory serves.

I read Death in the Long Grass in my early teens. After reading it, I quickly cut a swath through the rest of his prose like a lawnmower cutting through, well, short grass.

I loved hunting and his writing was lively. It still is.

When I was in Agricultural & Mechanical school, my dad called and asked if I wanted to meet in Dallas and go to the DSC convention. I quickly said yes.

The DSC convention was a much smaller affair then. We walked around it and wandered into a small room with high end rifles. I mean really expensive rifles. I knew nothing about double rifles but saw one that looked tasteful and appealed to me. I picked it up, then turned over the price tag that was hanging from the trigger guard. It read "$150,000" (and that was before inflation, back when $150K would buy you something more than, say, a fuqking cheesburger). I set the rifle down carefully, and I looked around the room.

Peter Capstick was one isle over with an entourage. He looked like his the press photos inside the dust cover of his books. He was tan and dressed in a "safari" shirt with built in cartridge loops, his hair was slicked back and he had on a elephant hair bracelet.

I walked over, stuck out my my hand and told him I was a fan of his writing. He seemed surprised and he was quite drunk. It was well before noon.

Maybe was "on vacation" that day.

And perhaps he had a bunch of clients in a row who really couldn't shoot. (Hey, I've worked as a guide and have seen some terrible shots.) Or maybe he wasn't a great guide and just wanted to party as toltecgriz implies; I don't know.

None of that shades his gifts as a writer. He was a fantastic story teller, but I personally doubt he was a great hunter.

Maybe he was when he was younger, before the booze took over. It's possible.

What the hell, who hasn’t gotten lit before noon?

You say that like it’s a good thing.

Not passing any judgment but it would seem to be less than productive. At any rate he lived an exciting life and could write. Come to think of it the same formula worked for Hemingway too. Take the good with the bad I reckon.

What's the source of information that PHC wasn't a good PH? I've watched several of his videos and nothing in them would suggest he would be less than a very good PH.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

Well, this will add another few pages to be sure....

For sure....

DF

Toltecgriz on this site shared a camp with PHC and has reported that some of the events that PHC wrote about didn't happen the way that PHC claimed.

Toltecgriz is the only person who I recall posting on this site about actually hunting out of the same camp that PHC was present in. If anyone else did, I don't recall seeing their posts.

PHC was a good story teller, but I did find it a bit disappointing to read on this site the differences between what PHC wrote and what Toltecgriz observed.

How many hunts did he share with PHC. One hunt doesn't make a career

No idea, but Toltecgriz is the only eye-witness account that I've read anywhere. I don't think that anyone has said that PHC didn't take artistic license to make a story more interesting.

If someone wants to write a novel that's entertaining then that's fine...you know its fiction. What annoys me is not knowing what is fiction and what is truth when someone writes about hunting adventures. A book loses its entertainment value for me when the author is prone to exaggerate or sensationalize just about every event. I know that is not the case with everyone, some don't mind fiction if it is well written, so long as they get entertained.

You say that like it’s a bad thing.

Remember, you can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning.




P

Now that’s logical.

Ha!

DF