If the captivating smile of a young Hemingway crouched over a lion isn't enough to pull you inside the covers of The Greatest Hunting Stories Ever Told, the remarkable prose you'll find throughout its pages will. Its target is serious writing, and it bags some powerful literary prey. Lamar Underwood, long an editor at Sports Afield and Outdoors, has assembled a stellar collection from the pens of Hemingway (naturally), Faulkner, Turgenev, Thomas McGuane, Vance Bourjaily, Patrick O'Brian, Robert Ruark, and Teddy Roosevelt, all of whose prose hunts for big answers as well as big game.
While clearly addressed to the fraternity of hunters, the essays and stories in this collection transcend the boundaries of the field. McGuane, writing passionately about how the hunt for food defines who we are in "The Heart of the Game," observes, as Sitting Bull did before him, "when the buffalo are gone, we will hunt mice, for we are hunters and we want our freedom." Hemingway, in "Remembering Shooting-Flying," an Esquire column from 1935, keeps world affairs in perspective when he wonders "how the snipe fly in Russia now and whether shooting pheasants is counter-revolutionary." "The Forest and the Steppe" is one of Turgenev's evocative "Hunter's Sketches"; evocative also defines "Mister Howard Was a Real Gent," one of Ruark's marvelous "Old Man and the Boy" contributions to Field & Stream.
Given the overall subject, there is plenty of sporting drama throughout, but also plenty of thoughtful reflection, and absolutely magnificent storytelling, which is as it should be. When you set your sights on the greatest, your aim needs to be true. --Jeff Silverman
Review
"Every once in a while, a book publisher comes up with a great concept for a series of books that deserve more than superficial recognition. Such a series is "The Greatest (fill in the blank) Stories Ever Told", anthologies that should win places on many bedside tables. On the long winter nights that lie ahead, such stories make great reading." --The Lexington County Chronicle
Book Description
"I don''t regard nature as a spectator sport." -Ed Zern, 1985
Hunting is a serious business-but it''s also about camaraderie, achievements and failures, seeing new places, and revisiting cherished ones. The true stories here feature a variety of game, in locations that range from high Yukon Territory mountain peaks to lowland swamps off of Mobile Bay, Alabama.
This is an indispensable volume for all lovers and students of the natural world. If your definition of home includes fields and marshes, creeks and river bottoms, plains and mountains, consider this required reading.
From the Publisher
Also available is the companion book The Greatest Fishing Stories Ever Told.
From the Back Cover
From Ernest Hemingway and many other of the great hunters and writers comes this title in the Lyons Greatest Stories Ever Told series, edited by Lamar Underwood.
About the Author
LAMAR UNDERWOOD, former Editor-in-Chief of Sports Afield and Outdoor Life magazines, is presently Editorial Director of the Outdoor Magazine Group of Harris Publications in New York. He has edited The Greatest Fishing Stories Ever Told, Man Eaters, The Bass Almanac, and The Quotable Soldier. He is the author of the novel, On Dangerous Ground.
The Greatest Hunting Stories Ever Told: Twenty-Nine Unforgettable Hunting Tales FROM THE PUBLISHER
From Ernest Hemingway and many other of the great hunters and writers comes this title in the Lyons Greatest Stories Ever Told series, edited by Lamar Underwood.
SYNOPSIS
Here are 26 true tales of hunting and adventure from the best-known and best-loved writers on the subject.
The stories in this collection will take you hunting for all sorts of game, in locations that range from mountain peaks to lowland swamps. Follow these great writers as they delve into their personal memories, igniting recollections sure to touch upon any avid hunter's own experiences, as they combine to form a collective hunting scrapbook.
The Greatest Hunting Stories Ever Told is an indispensable volume for all lovers and students of the natural world and the instincts that govern it. If your definition of home includes fields and marshes, creeks and river bottoms, plains and mountains, consider this required reading.
With contributions from:
Havilah Babcock John Barsness Vance Bourjaily
Nash Buckingham Peter Capstick William Faulkner Charles Fergus
John Taintor Foote Ernest Hemingway Gene Hill
Tom Kelly Gordon MacQuarrie John Madson
Thomas McGuane Patrick O'Brian Jack O'Connor
Theodore Roosevelt Robert C. Ruark Ivan Turgenev
Ed Zern And many more!
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
These two anthologies follow close behind a similar pair from last summer, Paul D. Staudohar's Fishing's Best Short Stories (LJ 7/00) and Hunting's Best Short Stories (Chicago Review, 2000). Hyperbole aside, all four are packed with fine prose from notable authors both classic and contemporary. That overlap between the competing counterparts is minimal just goes to show that fields and streams have been wonderful muses to many generations of writers. These diverse selections of short fiction and essays are enhanced by Underwood's informative prefatory remarks giving literary or historical context or adding some amusing anecdotes or interesting trivia. Underwood is a former editor-in-chief of Sports Afield and Outdoor Life and knew many of the authors personally. Patrick O'Brien, Thomas McGuane, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Ruark, Ben East, Charles Eliot, John Barsness, and Ed Zern are represented by separate contributions in both books. Major angling writers such as A.J. McClane, John Gierach, and Nick Lyons are in the Fishing book, of course, but there are also laudable pieces by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Le Anne Schreiber, and Zane Grey. The unanticipated outstanding authors in the Hunting volume include William Faulkner, Ivan Turgenev, and Theodore Roosevelt. The stories in both collections range from tender to raucous to knee-slapping hilarious. Highly recommended for all public libraries.--Will Hepfer, SUNY at Buffalo Libs. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.