Who Is The Next Hemingway, Ruark?

[npm352]

I don't think we will again have the kind of writers like Hemingway and Ruark because of the combination of their writing skills and appeal to the general public.

The skill is there for some, but it is rare. (How often do you read a hunting story that actually makes you feel something?) Not often....Instead: "I climbed mountain. I killed animal. I used this brand. You should buy this brand. The end."

But those with the skill don't have enough appeal outside of the hunting world. Most big name authors would be cancelled if they killed any one of the big five other than buffalo.

 

[Aaron.F]

I finally just finished reading Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa, after stopping the previous 3 times part way through. I will be honest, I must be missing something as I do not get the hype at all. As far as hunting authors, Corbett and Capstick blow him out of the water and many others are just plain better.

The only current book author I do enjoy reading is Craig Boddington. He tells a pretty good story and includes just enough gun information to not get to far in the weeds. In the past I enjoyed Finn Asgard and G. Sitton.

 

[WAB]

I agree with your comment on Finn Aagaard. His stories about his youth in the glory years of Kenya are some of the best I have read.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

In all fairness to Craig Boddington. He never set himself up to be compared to great literary authors. He's a nuts and bolts technical magazine writer.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

Hemingway and Ruark were authors first, hunters a distant second. I'd add Capstick to that short list.

In my mind Author and Writer are two different things.

Most of the rest mentioned in this thread are hunters first who happen to also write. Some of the better writing hunters with African experience would be Jack O'Conner and Jim Carmichael. Both very accomplished hunters and excellent writers. Loved reading their articles. I think they both could have written books if they chose to. (maybe they did).

Elmer Keith was one of the most accomplished and experienced gun men of all time, but he never considered himself a writer. Neither should we. That said, I absolutely love to read his stuff. And, he did write books.

Other writers are good to read, but have little or no experience hunting in Africa. Gary Sitton was one. He made you comfortable and knew his stuff technically, better than 99% of printed writers. I don't know if he ever went to Africa. Gene Hill was a treasure to read. One of his works was called "I don't want to hunt an elephant" He was an upland bird guy and made you feel good just reading his words. I don't think he went to Africa. Maybe, I just didn't read about it.

Grits Gresham and Bob Bristor were great too. So was Warren Page. But they were all writers, not authors.

We can't mix up outdoor writers with actual authors like Ruark and Hemingway. Different Leagues. Different styles and goals. Different audiences too.

 

[pattesonfamily]

Patterson's stuff is top notch. I've written two for the FE print editions and may have another coming up. They are very different than other magazine brands and are fun to write for because of it.

Thank you! Yours as well.

 

[rookhawk]

Is there anyone modern day who can step into these shoes? What made Hemingway was that he really was larger than life, he didn't act the part, he was the part. Craig Boddington?

There will never be another Hemmingway because there is no one studying and training their mind to be the next Hemmingway.

What does the modern author in the sporting world write about? Guns and the hunting that surrounds it. Elmer Keith? Ron Spomer? Michael McIntosh? Jack O'Connor? The next guy that is 10x better than them? It still doesn't make the cut.

Why?

Hemmingway wrote about the human condition, personal demons, pain, suffering, victim of circumstance, man vs himself, man vs man, melancholy, the meaningless of it all and then a stroke of divine providence upsetting that nihilism. Hemmingway then decided to set a stage for these thoughts and conflicts in a relatable setting: a war zone, a fishing boat, a safari camp, an ambulance, a rugged mountain.

If Hemmingway was alive today, because he is Hemmingway and he has to pick a backdrop that is relatable, he wouldn't write about any of the settings of the past, it would be set in a video game chat room, or a hospice, or in a meaningless forward operating base of an unending conflict, or on a tire floating from Cuba to Florida.

What he wouldn't do today would be to write something set in a foreign, unknowable, esoteric fringe the reader could not understand like a pheasant ditch in Nebraska, or a fishing honey-hole off the Dry Tortugas, or in a base camp within the Hindu Kush valley. The reader today would be unable to relate to any of these things today, nor would they understand symbolism that involved a double rifle, or a belt laden with shotgun shells, or the pain of infected thorn wounds on the legs having walked through jess bush for a month.

I could have written the entire post above and swapped out Hemmingway for Shakespeare to similar ends. Never mistake the subject of the story for the setting. Settings change. Even with Robert Ruark who is certainly the last "Great" of literature that wrote within the storytelling backdrop of hunting, his entire literary career was about relationships (his love for his grandfather and his bitterness for his spouse), his demons (booze), and a search for meaning (drunk at the Stork and 21 club in NYC, or at fly camp)

Fine prose and the latest writer for Gun's Digest don't go together. But what do I know, I dropped out of high school and might have missed the plot entirely.

 

[rookhawk]

I think what made Hemmingway great (in addition to his magical ability with prose) was that he was an adventurer.. that also happened to be a hunter.. running with the bulls.. ambulance driver during the great war.. volunteered to be a journalist in spain during the spanish civil war.. several boating adventures.. living the island life in the keys and in cuba.. etc.. etc.. he sought out adventure and lived life to the fullest.. which comes out in his works.. to include his hunting related writings..

Im not sure you would get the same effect from a non adventurer author that decided to write about hunting... or a dedicated hunter that has happened to do a few other things of interest in life that writes.. or a true adventurer that isnt at his/her core a writer..

Sadly I think the Hemmingways of the world are very very few and far between... it might be another hundred years before the world produces another one.. and by then.. who knows if anyone on the planet even enjoys reading anymore (the way things are going, im not sure anyone under the age of 40 can absorb more than 140 characters at a time anymore.. or has any interest in anything that isnt presented as a short comedic video)...

@mdwest I read your post after I wrote mine. It seems mine is completely redundant.

 

[Jack Stevens]

There will never be another Hemmingway because there is no one studying and training their mind to be the next Hemmingway.

What does the modern author in the sporting world write about? Guns and the hunting that surrounds it. Elmer Keith? Ron Spomer? Michael McIntosh? Jack O'Connor? The next guy that is 10x better than them? It still doesn't make the cut.

Why?

Hemmingway wrote about the human condition, personal demons, pain, suffering, victim of circumstance, man vs himself, man vs man, melancholy, the meaningless of it all and then a stroke of divine providence upsetting that nihilism. Hemmingway then decided to set a stage for these thoughts and conflicts in a relatable setting: a war zone, a fishing boat, a safari camp, an ambulance, a rugged mountain.

If Hemmingway was alive today, because he is Hemmingway and he has to pick a backdrop that is relatable, he wouldn't write about any of the settings of the past, it would be set in a video game chat room, or a hospice, or in a meaningless forward operating base of an unending conflict, or on a tire floating from Cuba to Florida.

What he wouldn't do today would be to write something set in a foreign, unknowable, esoteric fringe the reader could not understand like a pheasant ditch in Nebraska, or a fishing honey-hole off the Dry Tortugas, or in a base camp within the Hindu Kush valley. The reader today would be unable to relate to any of these things today, nor would they understand symbolism that involved a double rifle, or a belt laden with shotgun shells, or the pain of infected thorn wounds on the legs having walked through jess bush for a month.

I could have written the entire post above and swapped out Hemmingway for Shakespeare to similar ends. Never mistake the subject of the story for the setting. Settings change. Even with Robert Ruark who is certainly the last "Great" of literature that wrote within the storytelling backdrop of hunting, his entire literary career was about relationships (his love for his grandfather and his bitterness for his spouse), his demons (booze), and a search for meaning (drunk at the Stork and 21 club in NYC, or at fly camp)

Fine prose and the latest writer for Gun's Digest don't go together. But what do I know, I dropped out of high school and might have missed the plot entirely.

Liked your post …. so just a tad of a quibble: it’s spelled ‘Hemingway,’ with one ‘m.’

 

[Juan Loco]

Is there anyone modern day who can step into these shoes? What made Hemingway was that he really was larger than life, he didn't act the part, he was the part. Craig Boddington?

For fun, check out “the adventures and mid-adventures of Juan loco”. Available on Amazon.

 

[schmijar]

Also for any Hemmingway fans check out this book, the Hemming Way. It's about how to live life like the man himself. And it's funny as hell.

View attachment 525655

Holy crap, how have I never heard of this? I just ordered it.

 

[503]

Holy crap, how have I never heard of this? I just ordered it.

You will love it

Cheers

503

 

[Shakka]

JA Hunter and Capstick are the 2 people who influenced me most in my lifelong obsession with Africa

I do not like Boddingtons style, his overuse of the words marvelous, and fantastic, and his constant pimping himself out to his sponsors, and when he's done with them he never mentions them again

Does anyone remember his constant praise for Andrew Dawson-Chifuti Safaris.....what happened to that?

Or his shady dealings with the "Former Marine" who bought Rigby for a while there until he went bankrupt? He was the greatest thing since the invention of gunpowder too

I DO respect Boddington for the hunting and travel experience that he has acquired

Anyway, sorry for the Boddington rant!

 

[channelkat]

I’m a professional (nonfiction) writer. In 2015-16, when I was between jobs, an empty nester and kind of lost, I wrote a 50,000-word memoir about how hunting and sailing helped me regain a sense of purpose. It was pretty good so I shopped it around to publishers, especially those who specialize in outdoor books. No one took it. It has nothing to do with woke liberals, it has to do with:
1. Most people don’t read
2. Those who do generally don’t read fiction
3. Even outdoor publishers don’t want adventure stories or memoirs. All they want is how-to books with lots of charts, illustrations and photos. In other words, websites on paper.

If there is hope, it must lie in writers like me. Anyone get that literary reference?

I am generally not an Amazon fan, but in this regard is self-publication not an equalizer for someone in your position?

 

[Rare Breed]

Is there anyone modern day who can step into these shoes? What made Hemingway was that he really was larger than life, he didn't act the part, he was the part. Craig Boddington?

Getting ready for my August hunt going through my Ruark collection…also Hemingway. What seems to be missing today is the “poetic philosophy” both men wrote with versus the great authors today tell the stories as they are leaving out all the “ambiance” of the hunt. I find I enjoy both types but certainly recognize the two styles are very different. I loved Buzz Charleston’s Tall Tails and John Sharps Facing down fear. They fit the second type versus the first type. Just my POV

 

[schmijar]

I’m a professional (nonfiction) writer. In 2015-16, when I was between jobs, an empty nester and kind of lost, I wrote a 50,000-word memoir about how hunting and sailing helped me regain a sense of purpose. It was pretty good so I shopped it around to publishers, especially those who specialize in outdoor books. No one took it. It has nothing to do with woke liberals, it has to do with:
1. Most people don’t read
2. Those who do generally don’t read fiction
3. Even outdoor publishers don’t want adventure stories or memoirs. All they want is how-to books with lots of charts, illustrations and photos. In other words, websites on paper.

If there is hope, it must lie in writers like me. Anyone get that literary reference?

I would also love to see some of this.

 

[Baghorn]

Interesting nomination. I would put Boddington above him though.

When I was an impressionable teenager in the mid-late 1970's here in Texas I had one conduit that set the hook in me...it was a very young Peterson's Hunting magazine.

The articles were all pretty much a mix of Jack O'Connor reprints, a few reprints from Elmer Keith, a very very young Captain Craig Boddington writing his first hunting reports and putting a stake in the ground for the 30-06 the way Jack O'Connor did for the 270 Winchester. A new writer publishing articles about the great adventure of hunting in Africa named Peter Hathaway Capstick, and another up and coming young American writer, Terry Wieland.

I was 13 or 14 at the time and had no idea how lucky I was and what I had fallen into reading these guys. They mesmerized me on every level and turned out to be the pre-eminent writers of their generation. I particularly loved the Capstick articles (this was pre-Death in the Long Grass).