I've read it more than once. It's a great book. I'm a fan of Hemingway the character more than Hemingway the writer.
Hemingway spends a considerable amount of the book interjecting two of his favorite themes - competition and jealously. His competition with "Karl" (who was his Key West buddy Charles Thompson) I'm sure was real. His dressing down for his petty jealously by Phillip Percival was equally as real.
All this really does give the reader a sense of what it would have been like to go on safari with EH. You would have lectures on novelists, drinks in the evening, you would have been subjected to Eh's competitiveness, which would have been on everything from the quality of trophies, to backgammon to flirting with the girls on the ship cruising to and from NY. That was Hemingway. Charles Thompson was exposed to Hemingway's fits of moodiness when his trophies weren't the tops in camp, and I'm sure that soured more than a couple of evenings around the fire.
I wish Hemingway spent more time talking about Percival, considered the "dean" of the East African PH's, as well as more time telling the reader which part of Tanzania (Tanganyika in those days) he was in. I wish he had written it as Hemingway the newspaperman rather than Hemingway the novelist, but I still love the book, but...
Green Hills is a great book, but one of my favorite parts is actually Appendix I written by Pauline. She chronicles the kills as well as the food and drink. What is interesting is the amount of animals they actually missed or wounded. Hate to say it but there was some sloppy shooting going on. Nevertheless, great book. But if you haven't read the appendices, give them a look.
IMHO Pauline's writing adds a huge amount to the book, and yes their was some sloppy shooting going on.
Green Hills is a great book, but one of my favorite parts is actually Appendix I written by Pauline. She chronicles the kills as well as the food and drink. What is interesting is the amount of animals they actually missed or wounded. Hate to say it but there was some sloppy shooting going on. Nevertheless, great book. But if you haven't read the appendices, give them a look.
IMHO Pauline's writing adds a huge amount to the book, and yes their was some sloppy shooting going on.
Have you read Theodore Roosevelt's AFRICAN GAME TRAILS?
A friend of mine once called it, "Bully, bully! Let;s go wounding!"
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
As you would all know, he often spoke of cocktails throughout his writings. In "The Greenhills of Africa" he drank daily including while he was sitting in a blind hunting. But one of my favorite books is "To Have and Have Another; A Hemingway Cocktail Companion" by Philip Green. This is a 360 page book where the author delves into different cocktails that were highlighted throughout the chapters of Hemingway's classics. He includes the recipes so you can taste them when reading the particular book or chapter they are referenced in. It's a wonderful book (I have no dog in this hunt) and full of pictures of Hemingway as well. One of my favorite pics is one where Ernest is sitting at a table in Pamplona in 1926. He is seated with his then wife, Hadley, and also at the table is Pauline Pfeiffer, with whom he was having an affair - and who eventually accompanied him in Africa.
Thanks for that tip - I'd not seen it and it may have something in it to keep Hatari from tempting us with another pitcher of French 75 cocktails next time we're together. The 20 gauge was a bit too much the next day.
Damn, but they went down smooth and easy🍸🍸🍸
"The Democrat Party looks like Titanic survivors. Partying and celebrating one moment, and huddled in lifeboats freezing the next". Hatari 2017
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo
Green Hills is a great book, but one of my favorite parts is actually Appendix I written by Pauline. She chronicles the kills as well as the food and drink. What is interesting is the amount of animals they actually missed or wounded. Hate to say it but there was some sloppy shooting going on. Nevertheless, great book. But if you haven't read the appendices, give them a look.
IMHO Pauline's writing adds a huge amount to the book, and yes their was some sloppy shooting going on.
Have you read Theodore Roosevelt's AFRICAN GAME TRAILS?
A friend of mine once called it, "Bully, bully! Let;s go wounding!"
Probably accurate. TR’s poor eyesight and lack of modern optics along with the volume of game on his list for the museum all contributed to some list game.
TR’s Edwardian style of writing made AGT slow sledding for me.
"The Democrat Party looks like Titanic survivors. Partying and celebrating one moment, and huddled in lifeboats freezing the next". Hatari 2017
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo
Yeah, T.R. had bad eyesight, but it wasn't unusual for other hunters of the era to attempt shots they "estimated" at 500 or more yards with iron sights. Another example is ALASKAN-YUKON WON AND LOST by G.O. Young. Another example would be StewArt Edward White, at the time acclaimed as a great shot He added up the numbers from his first safari in his book on his first safari, and the hits, misses and woundings would not be considered acceptable by most 21st-century hunters.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
This is extremely hard to watch. And very, very sad. But for those who haven’t seen it, I will still post it.
Kaywood, I have never heard EH speak before. He has the cadence of a heavily medicated man, or was this normal for him? Seemed to have a lack of focus or interrupted thoughts. I know he was clinically depressed before his suicide. Is this not too far from that event?
He mentioned recovering from his air crashes at the beginning of the video. He had two successive plane crashes in Africa, which I believe hurt him badly. A guess, but maybe he was still on medications to treat the injuries when the video was filmed?. Also, in later years, I've read heavy use of electroshock therapy made it difficult for him to write. Those around him thought he was delusional for believing that he was under FBI surveillance for his communist activities. After his death, he was proven correct about the FBI surveillance.
The more I've read it, the sable/kudu hunt at the end stands as among the best big game stories ever.
But Hemingway was 34 when he went on that safari. He beat/worked himself to death in the next 27 years, due to being compulsively competitive (not just in writing but everything he did), and because he became an alcoholic, in the end drinking a bottle of wine at breakfast just to get himself going. But when he was on, he was great. When he wasn't....
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
This is extremely hard to watch. And very, very sad. But for those who haven’t seen it, I will still post it.
Kaywood, I have never heard EH speak before. He has the cadence of a heavily medicated man, or was this normal for him? Seemed to have a lack of focus or interrupted thoughts. I know he was clinically depressed before his suicide. Is this not too far from that event? [/quote]
I believe it was the brain trauma. I read thru all the comments on this video. Apparently one contributor who apparently was familiar with things stated there were prepared statements to the questions posted on boards behind interviewer, and on the floor/table, for him to read from. Like modern day teleprompter.
Also his use of “period" and such at end of sentences was another sign. This was also explained as he was afraid of the media chainging his comments. I personally think that an excuse. As many of us are aware, brain trauma can be hell.
Founder Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
This is extremely hard to watch. And very, very sad. But for those who haven’t seen it, I will still post it.
Kaywood, I have never heard EH speak before. He has the cadence of a heavily medicated man, or was this normal for him? Seemed to have a lack of focus or interrupted thoughts. I know he was clinically depressed before his suicide. Is this not too far from that event?
I believe it was the brain trauma. I read thru all the comments on this video. Apparently one contributor who apparently was familiar with things stated there were prepared statements to the questions posted on boards behind interviewer, and on the floor/table, for him to read from. Like modern day teleprompter.
Also his use of “period" and such at end of sentences was another sign. This was also explained as he was afraid of the media chainging his comments. I personally think that an excuse. As many of us are aware, brain trauma can be hell. [/quote]
I don’t think this video is what people are making it out to be. I’ve seen this video many, many times over the years. Hemingway hated talking about his life and work, and made it a point of not doing it. To one lady he said it made him physically ill. When it became unavoidable he made it obvious by going by a script (that was probably agreed on by the network), and by stating the punctuation was signaling the utter BS And proscriptive nature of it all. The one moment when the reporter gets flustered, Hemingway, under his breath, encourages the guy to keep going, probably because he knew it was almost over. Both the reporter and Hemingway knew this was an interview Hem did not want to do, and they Just bashed through it.
Hemingway did have a halting way of speaking. This interview is just after the Nobel prize, so 1954. He didn’t die until 1961.
Listen to his Nobel speech and you’ll hear what he normally sounded like.
Just being helpful for those interested - the title of that book is Ruark Remembered - By The Man Who Knew Him Best by Alan Richie, who was Ruark's personal secretary.
Another great book about Ruark is A View From A Tall Hill by Terry Wieland.
These are both excellent, excellent books and anyone interested in Ruark should definitely acquire them.
Thanks. I had a copy and read it and passed to a friend and never got it back. Now looking at the prices I'm not likely to buy it again. I'll look for the Wieland book but the prices on amazon are insane so it will be a search. May have to just be on the iPad but that's not near as satisfying.
Terry has (or is shortly) releasing a second printing of his ruark book and it should be easier to get a hold of.
I’ve spent 60-80 hours reading Ruarks personal papers. It’s good stuff.
Be careful what you write as you can perpetuate myths. Rhino are not nearly extinct, only selected species. The White Rhino have well over 15,000 population and is listed as "near threatened".
Not nearly extinct.
The hunter does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, he kills in order to have hunted. --- Jose Ortega y Gasset, in "Meditations on Hunting", 1942.
Just being helpful for those interested - the title of that book is Ruark Remembered - By The Man Who Knew Him Best by Alan Richie, who was Ruark's personal secretary.
Another great book about Ruark is A View From A Tall Hill by Terry Wieland.
These are both excellent, excellent books and anyone interested in Ruark should definitely acquire them.
Thanks. I had a copy and read it and passed to a friend and never got it back. Now looking at the prices I'm not likely to buy it again. I'll look for the Wieland book but the prices on amazon are insane so it will be a search. May have to just be on the iPad but that's not near as satisfying.
Terry has (or is shortly) releasing a second printing of his ruark book and it should be easier to get a hold of.
I’ve spent 60-80 hours reading Ruarks personal papers. It’s good stuff.
