Samuel “Baker of the Nile”

Samuel “Baker of the Nile”

In autumn 1858, on a beautiful day in the Scottish Highlands, a remarkable sporting feat that would be recounted innumerable times until passing into legend, occurred.  During dinner the previous evening at the Duke of Atholl’s estate, Sam Baker, recently returned to...
Henry Edwards Davis: Old School Sporting Scribe

Henry Edwards Davis: Old School Sporting Scribe

Most turkey hunters who are serious students of the sport and its rich literary heritage will be familiar with the name Henry Edwards Davis. His landmark book, The American Wild Turkey, is widely acclaimed as the definitive treatment of hunting America’s grand bird....
Bob Ruark and the Boy

Bob Ruark and the Boy

Bob Ruark left every lover of nature, every hunter and fisherman a bountiful legacy. To virtually all contemporary lovers of fine sporting literature, not to mention the millions who came to know him through his biting newspaper columns or best-selling novels, the...
Fred Selous Heart of Steel

Fred Selous Heart of Steel

In the words of his contemporary and close friend, Teddy Roosevelt, Frederick Courteney Selous (1851-1917) was “the greatest of the world’s big-game hunters.” Certainly, there were few sportsmen of the late Victorian and Edwardian period who would...
Musings On the Magic of Books

Musings On the Magic of Books

Ben Franklin, ever a reliable source of wisdom and insight on the human condition, once reckoned “the person who deserves the most pity is a lonesome one of a rainy day who doesn’t know how to read,” As someone who has derived a plentitude of pleasure from books over...
Frank Young: An Angler for the Ages

Frank Young: An Angler for the Ages

As a trout fisherman, Frank was simply the best I have ever been privileged to witness in action, and I’ve been astream with the likes of Gary Borger and Lee Wulff.

The Outdoor Writing Life

The Outdoor Writing Life

It is commonplace for long-established writers, late in their careers, to indulge in some type of retrospective look at their decades of literary endeavor. The word “indulge” is used advisedly, because to some degree virtually every such effort involves cosseting of...
The Lords Of Loafers Glory

The Lords Of Loafers Glory

During the middle of the past century, it was commonplace for old men, maybe a smattering of somewhat younger n’er-do-wells and boys to congregate in popular gathering places. In small towns and rural crossroads, those spots were almost always a country store,...