any other robert ruark fans out there besides stan and me...
"use enough gun"...
I've read "Horn of the Hunter"... Very enjoyable book.
Dreams of Africa...
I've read most of his books.
Mike
I have most of Ruark's books, and enjoy the ones on Africa. But, if you can have only one let it be the big combination book with the twin title The Old Man and the Boy and The Old Man's Boy Grows Older. If you had a Grandaddy that schooled you in things outdoors, as I did, this book will be very special to you.
SRH
my favorites are:
"poor no more"
"the honey badger"
both grenadine sagas...and of course "women"...
I read The Old Man & the Boy when it was a monthly feature in Field & Stream, started in the High School library. I also read a lot of his Safari stories in the mags. As to his actual books the only one I can recall reading was Something of Value. You can count me in as a Fan though.
At a young age “the Old Man And The Boy” was my first introduction to the sporting life with rod and gun. It had a lasting impression on me and I have reread it several times and has never grown old (as I have).
Same here, I love "The Old Man and the Boy".
I've long been a Ruark fan and have read nearly all of his works. "The Old Man and the Boy" is my favorite.
He had a gift. Sadly, he destroyed it with alcohol.
I checked out "Use Enough Gun" from the Bookmobile that came to our neighborhood when I was around 12 years old. I was totally intrigued and probably read it three times before I had to return it. It sent me on a path of reading any African hunting book I could get my hands on. I've read most of his titles.The "Honey Badger" and "Uhuru" were deeply moving to me.
Uhuru describes today's world pretty closely. I have them all and also have my years of Field and Stream from the fifties. I should cut out the "Old Man and the Boy" columns and sell the magazines. I guess "The Lower Forty" is worth saving too. The best Lower Forty column was in 1958, titled "Seat of Justice".
I read the Old Man and Boy to both of my sons as bedtime stories. I consider those two books to be as much about building character as being hunting and fishing tales. What was taught by the Old Man were timeless lesson on being a good person.
Another favorite of mine is a book called "The Pond" by Robert Murphy. A story of young man growing up through his trips to go hunting and fishing at his family's place in tidewater Virginia.
His book "Something of Value" is banned in Kenya because it is interpreted as portraying the 1950's Mau Mau rebels against the Brits as brutal terrorists rather than noble freedom fighters.
If Kenya banned "Something of Value", I wonder how they felt about Bob Jones's epic father/son bonding tale in "Blood Sport"?...Geo
Did they ban UHURU(?) also? They were portrayed as brutal terrorists only because they were brutal terrorists. They murdered many many Kamba as well as Brits. Their "oathings" killed many children of their own as well.
Mike
The Mau Mau absolutely were brutal terrorists. They tortured and killed many thousand of their own Kikuyu tribe for refusing to take the oaths, or failing to turn on their white employers when ordered. The rebellion was put down by 1956 but upon Independence in 1963, it's leader, Jomo Kenyatta, became president. That was when the terrorists became freedom fighters, and Kenyatta bestowed upon them countless appropriated British settler farms and government positions. This process was still going on when I lived there in the early 1970's - a farmer would wake up one morning to find police lorries offloading scores of ex-freedom fighters, who then forced out the owners. Productive farms became wastelands overnight, and the entire country descended into corruption that has became steadily worse over the last 50 years.
I don't know if Uhuru was banned, or if the ban on Something of Value was ever lifted.
uh guys, this thread is not about kenyer...
anybody else here read the grenadine sagas or "women"
Righto Ed, this thread is about Robert Ruark, who believed in using enough gun. Do you think he would have approved of your own attitudes about using enough gun?
less firepower would result in less deaths from too much firepower in the hands of too many people...
it aint about bannin guns and it certainly aint bout bannin cars...
uh, its about firepower...
an ah will ax duh question once again:
"have we the people exceeded our carrying capacity for firepower?"
recognize that there are too many guns in too many hands...reduce those numbers and gun related violence will also be reduced...it is as simple as that...too much of anything is not good.
no, guns do not kill people...people kill people.
cept, too many guns in the hands of too many people do kill too many people...have we the people exceeded our carrying capacity for firepower?
keith, my guess is that ruark would be willing to think about and discuss most any topic...
and he might even agree that we as a society might even have too much gun, so to speak...
It is Ruark's "fault" that I went on safari. I started reading him at about 10 years of age in the mid 50s. I knew after reading Use Enough Gun and Horn of the Hunter that my life would not be complete without an African Safari. I will be forever grateful to him.
keith, my guess is that ruark would be willing to think about and discuss most any topic...
and he might even agree that we as a society might even have too much gun, so to speak...
I try to avoid the political discussions if I can, but I think the words "too much gun" are the first words in a short and slippery slope towards limited gun ownership or the prohibition thereof. Let us remember we are members on a pro-firearm discussion website of our own volition and act accordingly. I doubt Ruark, would go in much for government-imposed limiting of ownership.
Mr. Good et al., I have only read Horn of the Hunter... What would be the best suggestion for my next selection?
ed,
I read Grenadine Etching and Grenadine's Spawn. They were not up to his later work, definitely not my favorites.
Mike
falls, most any of ruark's writings would be a good next selection...for a somewhat autobio, try "poor no more"...
Poor no more was one of my favorites. I read it while I was stationed at Sunny Point Military Ocean Terminal( Resident Engineer) at South Port NC, which was the home of the "Old Man". This was the area( there and Wilmington) the book was set in. I felt like I was there in the story, with the places and roads all around being in the book. There was a saying in the book, that I still use. When the mill burned down, they said they "sold it to the yankees"( insurance company).
Mike
That phrase is still heard around here too, Mike, though most of the younger crowd have not a clue what it means if I don't explain it.
SRH
"rusted them out" means the same thing. A tin roof will oxidize almost immediately after fire.
luv grenadine...she is a fasin natin and dangerous women...
and speakin of such, every guy could benefit from reading "women"...it reveals some of the mysteries of these wonderful creatures and provides insight into more...
I liked his comparison of modern American women to the African honey-badger better...Geo