An earlier piece in Sporting Classics Daily offered a bit of historical background on a series published at the beginning of the last century by The Macmillan Company under the title “The American Sportsman’s Library.” It also took a peek at the three angling titles included in the collection. At that point, I promised a similar look at the half dozen books related to hunting in the series.
They were, in order of date of publication: Theodore Roosevelt, T. S. Van Dyke, D. G. Elliot, and A. J. Stone, The Deer Family (1902); Edwyn Sandys and T. S. Van Dyke, Upland Game Birds (1902); L. C. Sanford, L. B. Bishop, and T. S. Van Dyke, The Waterfowl Family (1903); Joseph A. Graham, The Sporting Dog (1904); Captain A. W. Money, Horace Kephart, W. E. Carlin, A. L. A. Himmelwright, and John Harrington Keene, Guns, Ammunition & Tackle (1904); and Caspar Whitney, George Bird Grinnell, and Owen Wister, Musk-Ox, Bison, Sheep, and Goat (1904).
Collectively, the authors who contributed to these volumes were a veritable “Who’s Who” of sporting literature at the dawn of the 20th century. Roosevelt, our nation’s greatest sportsman, wrote a dozen books devoted exclusively or in large measure to the outdoors. Theodore S. Van Dyke, whose writings appeared in three of the Sportsman’s Library imprints, is probably best known for one of the greatest deer-hunting books of all time, The Still-Hunter. Horace Kephart, author of Camping & Woodcraft, Our Southern Highlanders, Sporting Firearms, and other books, was the country’s leading authority on guns and ballistics from the turn of the century until his death in 1931. George Bird Grinnell was, along with Roosevelt, the founder of the Boone & Crockett Club, a noted expert on American Indians, and author or editor of more than two dozen books. Owen Wister was a close friend of Roosevelt’s who wrote a book on their acquaintance and earned lasting fame for his novel, The Virginian.
Indeed, all the authors listed above were highly accomplished, and that explains in no small part why these books are of such lasting importance.
Perhaps a bit more detail about the volumes with multiple contributors is in order. In The Deer Family, Roosevelt covered deer and antelope, Van Dyke wrote on elk and black-tailed deer, Elliot’s contribution was on caribou, and that of Stone on the moose. The illustrations were provided by Carl Rungius.
Edwyn Sandys was responsible for most of the material in Upland Game Birds, with coverage of quail, partridge, grouse, plover, dove, woodcock, turkey, and ptarmigan. Van Dyke’s contribution was a section on “Quail and Grouse of the Pacific Coast.” Among the illustrators for this volume were A. B. Frost, L. A. Fuertes, and C. L. Bull.
In Guns, Ammunition and Tackle, Captain Money handled shotguns, Kephart wrote on hunting rifles, Carlin dealt with technical aspects of rifle shooting, and Himmelwright covered handguns. Strangely, the final section of the book dealt with “The Artificial Fly” for trout, bass, and salmon.
In The Waterfowl Family, Sanford dealt with the subject in general, while Van Dyke, as was the case in other volumes in the series, focused on the Pacific Coast area. In Musk-Ox, Bison, Sheep, and Goat, Whitney wrote on musk-ox, Grinnell on bison, and Wister on mountain sheep and goats.
The trade first editions came in a standard format, featuring attractive green binding, the top edge gilt, and gold embossing on the cover and spine. The limited, numbered editions were even more eye-catching, and are virtually impossible to find on today’s out-of-print market. Fine artwork added to the overall appeal of the books, and, as has been noted, some of the great names in wildlife art were among those involved in the series.
Any sporting bibliophile looking for an attractive shelf of books could do far worse than turning to the relevant volumes in The American Sportsman’s Library. Finding first editions will take a bit of digging, and most will demand prices in the $50 to $150 range. Anyone seeking a true challenge could focus on the deluxe versions, but if you do so be prepared to spend considerable effort, as well as a lot of cash. If you want the books simply for the vintage reading they offer, go for the later reprints, or simply look them up online. Thanks to being long out of copyright, most are available free on the Internet.
Cover photo via iStock