doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Peter Hathaway Capstick

You may have heard about this but there is a great quote, Capstick was at the SCI or one of the big shows in Vegas and having a beer with Brian Marsh (v.famous PH whom I believe Capstick apprenticed under). Peter said "I must write your biography one day Brian"...."You already have" said Brian ! Still Capstick made me believe I could still go to Africa and hunt and for that I�ll be eternally grateful, and he could write, best, Mike

I think you just have to accept people like Hemingway and Capstick for what the are. Great writers who also had a love of hunting and the outdoors.
Unfortunately we lost both too soon. Hemingway due to suicide by shotgun and Capstick due to suicide by bottle.
Jim

And we should not judge harshly these frailties, Jim. I admire Hemingway for his sentences, not his character. If Hemingway were my friend he would expect harsh truths from me because there can be no true friendship without it. Who's to say that for all the good of these writers' lives the bullet and bottle weren't noble actions?

King. Another writer we lost too soon:

"And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of old and evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back"

Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas

Hunter Thompson

One important difference between Hemingway and Capstick: Hemingway's genre was fiction. Although he was a larger than life human being, his enduring fame rests on what he was: a writer of fiction. Capstick claimed to be relating his own adventures, which means his enduring fame rests on what he was not. His books would not have sold had he not claimed to have been something he wasn't. Good writer or bad writer, wishing he was Selous or Bell or Corbett does not make it so.

That's an interesting slant, Larry, something to think of for our enjoyment of the craft.

Speaking of fabrecation, the above quote is a complete fabrication! P. Capstick never had a camp in Zambia on the Luangwa River. His camps were on the Mupamadzi river, where his home was also while he was hunting in Zambia.

He was a bartender when he first arrived in Africa, but that was in Maun Botswana where he made all his contacts to get into the wildlife department as a cropping officer, and later went to work for Kurr and Downey as an appie PH. Was licensed as PH appie in Zambia in 1967, and as a PH in 1968 on his Zambia work permit. You must remember there was a bush war raging in that part of the world in the early to mid 1960s, so hunting in those places was a little dangerous, and not from lions and buffalo only. Then worked with Zambia as a cropping officer as well. So the "LOCALS" who knew him as a bar tender must have all moved 2000 miles away to the Luangwa Valley, by the time "YOU" arrived there!

Idahobob what was the concession you hunted in Zambia again?..........................................


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As I posted earlier in this thread, the Dallas Safari Club presents an award each year in his honor. The DSC is a first rate organization and would not wish to tarnish their image if Capstick was a farce as some here have suggested.

http://www.biggame.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=38


The Peter Hathaway Capstick Hunting Heritage Award (PHCHHA) was announced in Dallas, Texas, at the Dallas Safari Club Annual Convention, January 9th, 2004.

Named after the well-known American author, whose defense of the international big-game hunting community and the role of hunting in the conservation of wildlife and its habitat made him a household name, the announcement was made to an enthusiastic audience by Capstick�s widow, DSC friend and Life Member, Fiona Claire Capstick.

Award criteria include active involvement in: education, hunting, conservation organizations, humanitarian causes, research, permanent endowments and charitable giving. The intent of the PHCHHA is summed up in the Award Committee's words:

�The objective of this award is to bring honor and recognition to an individual, organization or group whose achievements reveal a sustained and significant contribution to the conservation of wildlife and its habitat. Additionally, the winner will have shown long-term commitment to our hunting heritage by pursuing that goal for the benefit of future generations.�

This Award is Dallas Safari Club�s most prestigious conservation and service award.

Capstick wasn't a farce. The award honored him for his contributions to conservation of wildlife and habitat. Arguably, DSC was on safe grounds there. Arguably because of growing resentment of trophy hunting generally. Members' comments were directed more at his place as a hunter and writer. So much so that Capstick is next candidate for my iBooks library!

I would love to have his books in an iBooks format if only for an easier way to take them with me where ever I go. Very few of the books in my collection are available in iBooks or in a Kindle format. There is also something to be said for having the hard copy in hand. My den smells of old books, Hoppes and bird dog!

I have been building a fairly decent library on African Hunting and Exploration over the last five for six years. I have over 40 books from various authors. I really enjoy the books that were written around 1890-1910 era. My goal now is to slowly replace all the ones I have with 1st Edition copies. This has proven a costly and time consuming project.

I recently switched to an iPhone and downloaded a dozen or more iBooks on African Safari and African Hunting. I also find that app handy for all my PDF files and calalogues.