Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Missing Pete Capstick

I was on another web site where there was a very complementary discussion of Mr. Capstick and his adventures. Though I didn't know the man personally, when I heard of his death I felt as if I had lost a friend. I truly believe he did it all, but if he didn't I don't care. Capstick made the dream of African hunting come alive for me as nothing else could have. He was a magnificent writer and will be missed for we have no one else presently writing who is his equal. One just has to believe that somewhere out there he and Silent are still in hot pursuit.

I really did miss him. I traveled up to Reno for the SCI Convention several years ago because he was speaking. I took along my copy of Safari to get him to sign it.

PHC collapsed and was hospitalized the night before I got in, so I didn't get a chance to meet him. And of course he returned to South Africa and died shortly therafter.

Regardless of what he did or did not do, his writing ignited the Africa hunting industry that we enjoy today. I honor him for that.

jim

JBD - I greatly enjoyed PHC's writing. As many times as I have read Death in the Long Grass, I still subject my wife to listening to me read aloud about the bwana blowing up the crapper each time I reread it. I used to send him newspaper accounts of people meeting their end by means of wild animal. I would invariably get a postcard thanking me for the addition to his files.

There is an old Mexican saying: Hablar bueno solamente por los mertos.

Roughly, speak only good about the dead.

Capstick was a fine writer and told intresting and exciting stories.

BCR

With all the new stuff constantly coming along I reread almost nothing. Capstick is the exception. I have lost count of the times I have gone back to his books just to read again about things like blowing up the crapper.

ONE OF A KIND BOUGHT MY FRIST 375 H&H BECAUSE OF HIM. HE IS SADLY MISSED.

BCR - I've been puzzling over your reply. It sounds as though you know something that you think should be considered, but don't wish to bring up. If I misread the intent I stand corrected, but if I read between the lines correctly I would appreciate anything you would care to share. Thanks

5s stand by for a PM


BCR

It has been alleged that PHC "borrowed" many of his "personal" experiences and some that he didn't borrow, he just made up.

1 that I recall was posted by somebody who personally knew Bob Langeveldt, the PH that PHC wrote about being his game cropping partner in "Death In The Long Grass". PHC wrote about a close encounter with some Cape Buffalo that he and Langeveldt had when they were "cropping" at night by using a flare gun for illumination. According to the person who posted the comment, when he asked Langeveldt about the story, Langeveldt wouldn't confirm that it had either happened that way or to them.

There are so many stories about PHC "adjusting" stories to fit himself into the leading role, that a person would have to be more than a little naive not to take PHC's word with a large grain of NaCl. That said, PHC's adventures are fun to read and I read them frequently during the long hours that I sat by my dying Mother's bedside just 1 year ago.

Jeff

Capstick should be judged for his entertaiment value, not his reporting accuracy, which was suspect, to say the least.

Hablar bueno solamente por los muertos---excellent advice.

Well, maybe I should have described my personal feeling as being what in literary circles is called, "a willing suspension of disbelief." Hell guys, if all that stuff in Peter's books didn't happen quite the way he said it did, it should have! I can't think of anyone else that ever made going on safari sound half as interesting. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

A friend I used to work with had many colorful stories of his busy life (he was in his 40s at the time). One day another co-worker said, "You know, if all John's stories were true, he'd be 110 years old."

John

It never ceases to amaze me how some who have never penned much more than a critical report in 2 or 3 paragraphs on a hunting forum, never wrote a best seller in the hunting community, always find room to pen how they think they know it all. I could care less if he was the tallest fibber the world has ever seen, he was entertaining and fun.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" />Some of you fellas need to get a life or lighten up. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" />

PHC was one entertaining writer, who I love to reread. He had a great ability to tell a story with unriveled wit and humor. I remember well, reading his stories to my children when they were little.

PHC will be/is missed.

Prospector
Fiction can be good and can be fun to read... Fiction labled as non-fiction is entirely different...

Of all the hunting/outdoor authors whose books cram my crammed book cases, he is the only one my non-hunting, non-shooting, non-sporting, spectator but beloved spouse has read and thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed.
If she ever concedes to go the DC with me it will be because of the portraits he painted of it, whether realistic or impressionistic.

George

I think a safari with PC would have been a blast. If he was still around and in business I know I would find out. I'm at that point in my hunting where killing the biggest whatever matters less and less anyway. The best things I ever got from my hunting were the friendships I formed and getting to see places I never would have otherwise.