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4 members (L. Brown, jlb, Carcano, 1 invisible),
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Forums10
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Jul 28th, 2025
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,572 Likes: 165
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,572 Likes: 165 |
He does deserve some credit for a resurgence in interest in classic books on big game hunting in Africa and Asia, written by authors with, shall we say, less questioned credentials as hunters?
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 67
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 67 |
Actually, PHC was an apprentice PH. A friend and fellow club member of mine actually was on safari with him on a 3 week trip with his father after his graduation from Yale. He is mentioned by PHC in one of his books when a record animal was taken. I met him once myself. He appeared to me to be a charming guy who drank and wrote stories. It is true as many PHs, including my own, have stated, PHC did more for the the African Safari trade than anyone since Theodore Roosevelt. The books of both of them sent me on the road to 6 African safaris and after all TR's Nobel prize was for Peace not Literature...Most of the people who critize PHC have never set foot in Africa.
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Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 314
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 314 |
I have been a fan of Capstick's books for years. I own the entire set and have enjoyed reading them over and over. His books turned me on to others such as Bell, Selous, etc. His publisher released a set called the "Capstick Adventure Library Series" that contained reprints of some fabulous books written around the 1890-1910 era.
Capstick also has a DVD set which my wife purchased for my birthday last year. It's ok for what it is. If I wasn't a fan of his books I probably would not have watched them all.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 2,264 Likes: 92
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 2,264 Likes: 92 |
I thought he was a stock broker???
Dodging lions and wasting time.....
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Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 673 Likes: 17
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 673 Likes: 17 |
I've liked many of Capstick's tales, both before and after my own trip to southern Africa.
Maybe the only one I think ill-advised is his story about hosing a troop of baboons one day in a palm grove, using some high-cap weapon like a Mac-10. It was clear in his telling of the story that he got off on how is was like combat or murder. Contrived by a man who was probably never close to either....
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Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 314
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 314 |
I thought he was a stock broker??? Ken, He was a stock broker before he became involved with the outdoor industry. He began working for Olin IIRC and was handling outfitters in South America. After his time in South America he went to Africa to become a PH.
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Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 314
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 314 |
The below information is from Wikipedia. Peter Hathaway Capstick (1940–1996) was an American hunter and author. Born in New Jersey and educated at the University of Virginia, he walked away from a successful Wall Street career shortly before his thirtieth birthday to become a professional hunter, first in Central and South America and later (and most famously) in Africa. Capstick spent much of his life in Africa, a land he called his "source of inspiration." A chain smoker and heavy drinker, he died at age 56 from complications following heart surgery.
After a short career as a Wall Street stockbroker, Capstick headed to Latin America, where he traveled widely while hunting, fishing, and mastering the Spanish language. A few years later he returned to New York, where he founded a business arranging professionally guided hunting trips. Shortly thereafter he took a position as hunting and fishing director of Winchester Adventures of New York, a subsidiary of the famous gun manufacturer. In that capacity he made his first trip to Africa in 1968. Subsequently he worked as a professional hunter and game ranger in Zambia, Botswana and Rhodesia.
Capstick started writing about his adventures in the late 1960s, and published numerous articles in various sporting magazines. In 1977 he published his first book, Death in the Long Grass, which became a commercial success and established his reputation as an author of true adventure stories. Capstick is frequently compared to Ernest Hemingway and Robert Ruark in discussions of influential African hunting authors.
In early 1996 Capstick was a keynote speaker at the annual Safari Club International convention in Reno, Nevada when he collapsed in his hotel room and was diagnosed with exhaustion. He was immediately flown back to his adopted country of South Africa and underwent heart bypass surgery in a Pretoria hospital. He died just before midnight on March 13 of complications from surgery.
After a small private ceremony, his ashes were scattered over the Chobe River in northeastern Botswana.
The .470 Capstick rifle cartridge, developed by A-Square's Colonel Arthur B. Alphin in 1990, bears his name. His legacy is saluted by The Dallas Safari Club's annual Peter Hathaway Capstick Hunting Heritage Award for the promotion of responsible hunting and wildlife conservation. There are those who have attempted to discredit his stories and achievements. True or not, he was one hell of a writer and story teller. The fact the Dallas Safari Club presents an annual award in his name speaks volumes to those who are out to prove him a farce. What these doubters have to gain from a dead man is beyond me.
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Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 931
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 931 |
That reminds me of one chap, a Soviet hunter and aspiring writer. In the bad old days of the Iron Curtain hunting enthusiasts in USSR couldn't get much information about how things were hunted in the other parts of the world - but this chap was a sort of a diplomat, if I'm not mistaken, somewhere in South America. So he bought hunting books in English and Spanish, made some rather liberal translations of the stories he liked, replacing the first person with the third when appropriate, signed them with his own name, and sold them, as his own, to Soviet outdoor publications - both of them. Not that there was much market to feed on, the monthly was allowed only one piece about foreign affairs per issue, the yearly - two or three, and half of those had to be about Socialist countries - but the chap all but monopolized it by late '80s. And, why I remembered him, quite a few of "his" stories were borrowed from Capsitck  So, like I told my superviser when I first saw a few passages from my PhD thesis reproduced without permission and reference, "if people want to steal it, it's gotta be good". And, erm, sorry I can't answer the question of the original post, which was, basically, "What did Capstck's signature on his books usually look like?"
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 2,264 Likes: 92
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 2,264 Likes: 92 |
I've been rereading RETURN TO THE LONG GRASS. I find it interesting that after meeting Wally Johnson he was compared by him in so many ways to Johnson's life long buddy Ruark. PHC was quick to point out any comparison ended at the prose department. I do enjoy his writing but Ruark started it all for me....Along with Wally Taber who I believe was one of the first to bring African hunting to TV. I have a signed copy of one his paper back picture books which has some disturbing photos of blokes that didn't end up too well after confronting some of the local toothy residents.
Last edited by Ken Nelson; 01/13/12 10:24 AM.
Dodging lions and wasting time.....
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 765 Likes: 2
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 765 Likes: 2 |
PH's in Zimbabwe claimed PHC wrote up others' hunts as his own, but were quick to say he was the best thing that could have happenned to a flagging safari industry.
I had the chance to buy the leather set when it came out for a bit over 300 dollars...told my wife I should have!! I still love the writing, and no doubt others felt compelled to ramp their prose up a notch after his success.
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