A chain smoker and heavy drinker, he died at age 56 from complications following heart surgery.'īig game hunting still goes on and is arguably even more controversial now than it was then when the movement to protect wild animals and the danger of extinction of several important (aren’t they all?) species had only been in the public eye for, perhaps, fifteen to twenty years.Īs an aside, I am sure that the book and film Elsa the Lion/Born Free had a significant impact on public perceptions of lions in particular, and all wild animals in general. ![]() Capstick spent much of his life in Africa, a land he called his ‘source of inspiration’. Born in New Jersey and educated at (although did not graduate from) the University of Virginia, he walked away from a successful Wall Street career shortly before his thirtieth birthday to become a professional hunter, first in Central and South America and later (and most famously) in Africa. 'Peter Hathaway Capstick was an American hunter and author. His Goodreads biographical note says this: He must have been a ‘larger than life’ kind of guy, and I certainly would have liked to have spent a couple of hours around a campfire listening to him, though I probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep much afterwards. Published in 1977, Death in the Long Grass relates stories of big game hunting in Africa, as told by the hunter himself. I bought this book from Book Club Associates, a division of WHSmith, I believe, when I was a teenager many moons ago. ![]() Readers can lean back in a chair, sip a tall, iced drink, and revel in the kinds of hunting stories Hemingway and Ruark used to hear in hotel bars from Nairobi to Johannesburg, as veteran hunters would tell of what they heard beyond the campfire and saw through the sights of an express rifle.Īs thrilling as any novel, as taut and exciting as any adventure story, Death in the Long Grass takes us deep into the heart of darkness to view the Africa that few people have ever seen. Capstick was a born raconteur whose colorful descriptions and eye for exciting, authentic detail bring us face to face with some of the most ferocious killers in the world- underrated killers like the surprisingly brave and cunning hyena, silent killers such as the lightning-fast black mamba snake, collective killers like the wild dog. And of the few who have known this dangerous way of life, fewer still can recount their adventures with the flair of this former professional hunter-turned-writer.īased on Capstick's own experiences and the personal accounts of his colleagues, Death in the Long Grass portrays the great killers of the African bush- not only the lion, leopard, and elephant, but the primitive rhino and the crocodile waiting for its unsuspecting prey, the titanic hippo and the Cape buffalo charging like an express train out of control. Few men can say they have known Africa as Peter Hathaway Capstick has know it- leading safaris through lion country tracking man-eating leopards along tangled jungle paths running for cover as fear-maddened elephants stampede in all directions.
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