Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Adventurer Book Recommendations?

Can anyone recommend a book or books regarding late 19th early 20th century african, middle eastern or asian adventurers? Would like to read about the exploits of some intrepid Victorian-era hunters/explorers. Thanks.

Any of Samuel Baker's works

"East of the Sun West of the Moon" by the Roosevelt Brothers (Teddy and Kermit).

"Across Mongolian Plains" and "Ends of the Earth" by Roy Chapman Andrews

"Into Africa" the search for Livingstone by Stanley by Martin Dugard

"A Sporting Trip Through Abyssinia" Percy Powell-Cotton

Bartle Bull's "Safari"

"A Hunter's Wanderings Through Africa" FC Selous

Buy everything written by Jim Corbett, Peter Capstick and J.A.Hunter(if you can find any).
The Man Eaters of Tsavo by Patterson

I�m in my �White� period now so suggest these by Stewart Edward White.

The land of the Footprints, 1913
African Campfires, 1914
The Rediscovered Country, 1915
Lions in the Path, 1926

Also �African Rifles and Cartridges� by Taylor, 1948.

Jim Corbett, the best ever, followed by Karojomo Bell. capt david

Need to add a couple, especially in Asia:

Across Asia's Snows and Deserts - William Morden

Hunting the World's Mountains (2 vol set) compiled by Jim Rikhoff

Sport and Folklore in the Himalayas - Captain H.L. Haughton

After Wild Sheep in the Altai and Mongolia - E. Diemdoff

Across the Roof of the World - P.T. Etherton

Trails of the Hunted - James Clark

John Batten's work on sheep hunting is very good and was around the 1920's and later. Very good stuff.

Africa

African Hunter - James Mellon

Maneaters of Tsavo - Col J.H. Patterson

Big Game Shooting in Africa - H.C. Maydon

And, while not early turn of the century type exploration, Elgin Gates was quite the adventurer himself and wrote two outstanding books (in my opinion)
Trophy Hunter in Africa
Trophy Hunter in Asia

"Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton" by Edward Rice

and

"The Great Game" by Peter Hopkirk


Sycamore

Capstick's "African Adventurers"

African Game Trails - Theodore Roosevelt

Hunter - John Hunter

If you can find them, Sporting Classics reproduced original books of the African explorers by photolithography of each page of a dismantled copy, all bound in leather. Some are large, with watercolor maps by Portugese explorers in the early 1800s.

I'll go to my library and make a list of those and some others.
If anyone has an original or re-issue of Mellon's book, or any rare books, please contact me about producing a new edition, bound in appropriate leather ( even elephant or crocodile )

Eric,

Books by Martin and Osa Johnson can be a good read. Two specifics that come to mind are:
Safari , Martin and Osa Johnson
I Married Adventure , Osa Johnson
I'm not sure they qualify as Victorian Era; I believe most of their hunts and adventures took place between 1920 and 1935. Martin's wife Osa was quite a pill. From my limited perspective, she had more moxie than most folks, past or present.

Rich

My idea of a pin-up, Osa with her Griffin & Howe.

I went to my bookshelf last night, got distracted, started reading some stories by Zane Grey, O'Connor, Herb Elliot and Hemingway.

Hemingway was killing cape buffalo with a .30-06, using 220-gr RN soft point bullets, probably clocking 2,300 fps, with complete penetration.

That got me interested in going through a bunch of these books to see what these hunters used, and how well it worked. Those with "bullets that failed" didn't get to write books.