From conservation and historical accounts to fictional adventures, these books make for great reading whenever the season. If you’ve completed this list, make sure you browse our entire selection.
Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New
Michael Punke’s Last Stand tells the epic story of the American West through the lens of the American bison and the man who saved these icons of the Western landscape. Over the last three decades of the nineteenth century, an American buffalo herd once numbering 30 million animals was reduced to twelve. This is the story of the death of the old West and the birth of the new as well as an examination of how the West was really won—through the birth of the conservation movement. It is also the definitive history of the American buffalo, written by a master storyteller of the West.
A River Never Sleeps
Few books have captured the haunting world of music and rivers and of the sport they provide as well as A River Never Sleeps. Roderick L. Haig-Brown writes of fishing not just as a sport, but also as an art. A River Never Sleeps is one of the enduring classics of angling. It will provide a rich reading experience for all who love fishing or rivers.
The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America
A dramatic account of the worst forest fire in American history. Timothy Egan narrates the struggles of the overmatched ranges against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force. Equally dramatic is the larger story he tells of outsize president Teddy Roosevelt ad his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by and preserved for every citizen.
Legendary Hunters and Explorers
Finishing the final book in the iconic Legends series, this is the epitome of Sir John Seerey-Lester’s spirit. Filled with over 120 paintings and 45 descriptive chapters, this great book relives the compelling stories of 25 acclaimed hunters and explorers. Sir John Seerey-Lester devoted almost three years in researching and writing about these and other eminently fascinating characters, such as Theodore Roosevelt, Hugh Glass, Winston Churchill, John Torrington, Adolphus Greeley and more.
Green Hills of Africa
Hemingway’s second work of nonfiction, Green Hills of Africa is an account of a month on safari he and his wife, Pauline Marie Pfeiffer, took in East Africa during December 1933. In examining the grace of the chase and the ferocity of the kill, Hemingway looks inward, seeking to explain the lure of the hunt and the primal undercurrent that comes alive on the plains of Africa.
The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America
In this groundbreaking epic biography, Douglas Brinkley draws on never-before-published materials to examine the life and achievements of our “naturalist president.” By setting aside more than 230 million acres of wild America for posterity between 1901 and 1909, Theodore Roosevelt made conservation a universal endeavor. This crusade for the American wilderness was perhaps the greatest U.S. presidential initiative between the Civil War and World War I. Roosevelt’s most important legacies led to the creation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906. His executive orders saved such treasures as Devils Tower, the Grand Canyon, and the Petrified Forest. Featuring over 800 pages from childhood to adult, Brinkley covers what made Roosevelt a conservationist and sets the stage for what he was to do as a public servant and politician. It details not only what Roosevelt did but how and why.
The Old Man and the Sea
The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the enduring works of American fiction. It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Using the simple, powerful language of a fable, Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent twentieth-century classic. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novel confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.
The Old Man and the Boy
This timeless classic by Robert Buark, originally published in 1957 and never out of print, tells the story of a remarkable friendship between a young boy and his grandfather. The Old Man and the boy hunt the woods and fields of North Carolina together; they fish the lakes, ponds, and sea. All the while the Old Man acts as teacher and guide, passing on his wisdom and life experiences to his grandson, who listens in rapt fascination. In Ruark’s skillful hands, the book becomes much more than a boy’s early lessons in hunting, fishing, and camping. It is a heartwarming, eloquent, and ultimately poignant tale about choices, about responsibility, and about becoming a man.
African Game Trails
Roosevelt and his son Kermit left New York in March 1909 and traversed Africa for nearly a year. Roosevelt’s object was not that of a mere sportsman to accumulate personal souvenirs of his hunting skill. This was a serious scientific expedition to collect specimens of large and small game of Africa for the Smithsonian Institution-many of which can be found at the Smithsonian still to this day. Relive Roosevelt’s account of his African wanderings as an American hunter-naturalist. This superb volume includes over 100 photographs. drawings, and maps from the original publication, as well as bonus images not found in other editions.
The Man-Eaters of Tsavo
In 1898 John H. Patterson arrived in East Africa with a mission to build a railway bridge over the Tsavo River. Over the course of several weeks Patterson and his mostly Indian workforce were systematically hunted by two man-eating lions. In all, 100 workers were killed, and the entire bridge-building project was delayed. As well as being stalked by lions, Patterson had to guard his back against his own increasingly hostile and mutinous workers as he set out to track and kill the man-eaters. Patterson’s account of the lions’ reign of terror and his own attempts to kill them is the stuff of great adventure. Originally published in 1907, this classic tale of death, courage, and terror in the African bush is still a page-turner, even after all these years.