Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Green Hills of Africa

Monday night PBS documentary by Ken Burns on... Ernest Hemingway!

What do you base that on? My actual experience is completely different. The guys I hunted with are salt of the earth guys who are a pleasure to hunt with. They charge just enough to make a living and they are damn good at their job. The actual cost per animal is a bargain compared to US guided hunts, and the experience of seeing hundreds of animals every day is priceless.

And to the point, I just started reading Green Hills of Africa.

Boomer454-
You might consider some possible additions to the class of hunting writers who created works that were popular among non-hunters.

Zane Grey's writing were immensely popular. He was for a time the world's best selling author. Influential critics and literati didn't rate him highly, despite his major role in inventing the western genre. His books have been made into more movies than books from any other author's. Outside of westerns he was better known for writing about fishing than hunting, but he did produce hunting tales and wrote some articles for Sports Afield about firearms.

William Faulkner certainly belongs to this group. Faulkner was a hunting writer, and his hunting tale "The Bear", a deep consideration of human-nature relationships, is generally considered one of the finest, and frequently the finest hunting story ever written. He really did have to be talked out of his annual week at deer camp, in order to go to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature https://sportingclassicsdaily.com/do-you-write-mr-faulkner/.

There may be other authors who belong to this class also. Ruark? Steinbeck?

--Bob

Steinbeck didn't write much about hunting, but he liked to hunt. I recall reading about his first meeting with Faulkner--after the preliminaries they mostly talked about deer rifles!

In Steinbeck's book Travels With Charlie he mentions buying a new .222 Remington, as I recall in Miles City, Montana.

Not done Hemingway yet, but I've passed it several times in the thrift store stacks. Have been wading through volumes by Baldwin, Cummings, Patterson, Harris, Akeley, Selous, Oswell, Bell, and a host of others, as well as the more modern day script of Roosevelt. Several of those authors express a bit of sorrow for folks coming to Africa with only 3 or 4 months available for their hunts. Seems one can't really get the flavor of the place in such a limited time. Many feel the continent was pretty well shot out by about 1875.

Some truly amazing stories from those wandering the continent with ox drawn wagons and packing double cap lock 4-bores as weapons. Took quite a bit of time for the smoke to clear before one could see the results of his shots.

Would love to go and can easily afford the hunts. My desire, however, to return with ones trophies make it cost prohibitive. Too many agencies wanting a slice of the pie for no effort on their part.

This might be of interest to those baffled by some of the later works...

https://www.enotes.com/topics/true-at-first-light

Green Hills is not my favorite Hemingway book. Although it has some interesting parts, I found it a bit uneven. Still, it's worth reading.

While on the African topic, another book I enjoyed was “HUNTER” by J.A. Hunter. Been awhile since I read it so it may be time again.

I picked up an older hardcover copy of this book around 25 years ago at an estate sale and have read it a few times. It's definitely a good read and like you, I think I'm due to read it again.

Finished Green Hills a bit before this thread started and am rereading Use Enough Gun, then will tackle Uhuru.
Funny how the older books are a great read and the contemporary ones seem to contain excess, with too little literature.
Also interesting to note the depth of absorption and digestion the authors had of their immediate surroundings and especially the people. The reciting of same seems to be the ingredient to encapture the reader.
It does me........

If you liked reading Green Hills of Africa you might think about listening to it in an audiobook format. I've found it makes a 17 hour flight or a 26 hour drive go just that much quicker. The introduction to the version I have is a bit embarrassing with the excuses for the subject matter but the production is well done and very enjoyable. That goes for most of his other titles as well. Too bad I haven't found any Ruark titles as audiobooks.

The Old Man and the Boy is only one I've seen.

Great book!

Sort of what MD alluded to concerningt "True at First Light," some pf the passages are amazing. You think "He really nailed it." Much of the rest is just reading to find another remarkable passage. For me it was worth it.

I found it interesting that the three true short stories that Burns focused on are the three I remember best, "Up in Michigan," "The Indian Camp" and "Hills Like White Elephants." I confess the reason I remember "Hills..." is I was very young when I read it and I read it twice, as I had no idea what it was about. That came years later.

As for "Green Hills of Africa," I tried reading it in the fifth grade at camp. It was the only book my mother sent with me. I couldn't get into it. A few years later I tried it again. Amazing.

I should rephrase that. Oh, I'm sure there's lots of great guys that can afford it. But for most it's out of reach. Your retirement will get partially pissed away.

Now, If you are the type that will finance a $70,000 truck, or even buy it cash without a couple million in the bank, then you won't understand my thoughts on money.

I read lots of the greats before I was 25. Ross Seyfried made me want to be a PH like him. I never got rich so there's that.
I also met 3 guys over the years that traveled the world hunting and had massive trophy collections. You wouldn't want to meet or hang with any of them I promise.