To Kill or be Killed, Major W. Robert Foran

It was a fine, bright day in August 1968, in The Sportsman’s Arms Hotel in Nanyuki, when W. Robert Foran knew death was coming.  Calmly, he ordered a bottle of champagne and, raising a last toast to his eighty-eight years of life during which he had outlived all the legendary African big game hunters, he died, like the gentleman he always was.

Kill or be Killed is a classic piece of African sporting literature.  It is full of interesting stories like the time Major Foran killed a lion while “garbed in dinner clothes and patent leather shoes” in the days when lions still roamed the streets of Nairobi.  He recalls stories of hunting the big five in African as well as hunting tigers from elephant back in India.  He was friend and a peer to many of the legends of the glory days of African big game hunting like Authur Neuman, Jim Sutherland, and Karamoja Bell.  He survived many injures and disease and covered Theodore Roosevelt’s famous safari with the Associated Press. 

One of my favorite quotes from the book is in the introduction by C.T. Stoneham:

“In this overstocked world there are a number of people for whom a safe, routine existence is inert and boring.  They actually delight in the hardships and dangers of the wild parts of the earth; they have a hungry urge to contend with the rough nature in a battle where no quarter is given; they accept the challenge to kill or be killed.” 

If you are a connoisseur of adventure stories or a collector of African literature this book will not disappoint and is a must have addition to the library.