Theodore Roosevelt in the Field, Michael R. Canfield
heodore Roosevelt is my favorite president and is one of my favorite historical figures. He as a man of action and adventure. When one sees pictures of Roosevelt he is invariably involved in some sort of action such as riding a horse, on safari, or standing on the edge of a cliff. He was a true renaissance man, an intellectual and author of numerous books, a naturalist, rancher, soldier, statesman, conservationist and sporting man. It is in the field that Roosevelt shined and where his passion for the “strenuous life, and his drive for scientific discovery and conquest were most apparent.
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F.A. Mitchell Hedges, Land of Wonder and Fear
“The lure of the jungle is irresistible; and when once the untrammeled freedom of the wilds has been known the life of a great city in comparison appears insanity.”
- F.A. Mitchell Hedges
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The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea is a short novel authored by Ernest Hemingway. I have read it several times, each time in one sitting. It is more of a novelette or extended short story in my mind. He wrote Old Man and the Sea in 1951 while in Cuba. I was the last major work of fiction published by Hemingway in his lifetime. It is arguably one of his most famous works and tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba. Through his struggle Santiago demonstrates the ability of the human spirit to endure hardship and suffering in order to win. In 1953 the Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and it’s authoring was cited as a contributing factor to the Nobel Committee awarding Hemingway the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
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A Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa, Frederick Courteney Selous
Frederick Selous is generally acknowledged as the greatest African Hunter of all time. He also served in the British Army under Cecil Rhodes and was instrumental in opening Rhodesia after the winning of the Second Matebele War. He was a close personal friend of Theodore Roosevelt and the African wing of the British Museum of Natural History is named after him. The largest nature reserve in the world, Tanzania’s Selous Reserve is named after him. Roosevelt said, “there was never a more welcome guest at the White House than Frederick Selous.” Roosevelt added that “it is well for any country to produce men of such a type; and if there are enough of them the nation need fear no decadence.”
A Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa was first published in 1881, it is an excellent example of adventure literature and a must read for anyone who is serious about big game hunting in Africa and for anyone interested in the history of Africa, especially hunting on the dark continent during the golden age of African Hunting.
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Horn of the Hunter, Robert C. Ruark
“The hunter’s horn sounds early for some, later for others. For some unfortunates, poisoned by city sidewalks and sentenced to a cement jungle more horrifying that anything to be found in Tanganyika, the horn of the hunter never winds as all. But deep in the gut of most men is buried the involuntary response to the hunter’s horn, a prickle of the nape hairs, an acceleration of the pulse, an atavistic memory of their forefathers, who killed first with stone, and then with club, and then with spear, and then with bow, and then with gun, and finally with formulae.”
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Rough Riders, Mark Lee Gardner
This is a book about Theodore Roosevelt and his cowboy regiment, and the immortal charge up San Juan Hill. This is an excellent book that is first-rate history and an excellent portrayal of Theodore Roosevelt’s extraordinary life. Gardner brings to life the epic period of American history in such a way that you can smell the saddle leather, gunsmoke, and hear the guidons snapping in the wind. This is a story about one of my favorite characters and a war that I have always had a fascination with
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A Concise History of the Spanish Civil War, Paul Preston
No war in modern times has inflamed the passions of both ordinary people and intellectuals in the way the conflict in Spain in 1936 did. The Spanish Civil War in burned into the European consciousness, not simply because it prefigured the much larger war that followed it, but because the intense manner of its prosecution was a harbinger of a new and horrific form of warfare that was universally dreaded. At the same time the hopes awakened by the attempted social revolution in the republican Spain chimed with the aspiration of many in Europe and the United States during the grim years of the Depression.
I read this book to get a deeper understanding of the tensions in Spain that persist to this day as I planned a second trip to Catalonia for a horse trekking trip. Shortly after reading this history I picked up Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls again and I was able to make a deeper connection to the characters in this classic novel with a greater understanding of the context that the story takes place in.
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Hero of The Empire, Candice Millard
This is a book about Winston Churchill. This is an excellent example of adventure literature, it is skillfully written, very readable and enjoyable. The story takes place during the Second Boer War fought between the British Empire and two Boer states, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, over the Empire's influence in South Africa. Churchill was busting at the bitts to get into the war and was successful in getting into the action, was captured and then made a daring escape that helped launch his political career.
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The River of Doubt, Candice Millard
At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth. This is the second book by Millard I have read, and both have been excellent pieces of adventure literature. The story is skillfully portrayed, and the story is riveting. Roosevelt is one of my favorite historical figures and this expedition was his last great adventure and one that he came close to not returning from. Reading this book has inspired me to book a trip to the Amazon in 2020 to fish and explore this most interesting part of the world.
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