Peter Capstick: Say it ain't so!!

B

Bigfatts

New member
My favorite hunting writer by far is Peter Capstick. For those of you who don't know he wrote many books on African hunting detailing his own career as a PH and the careers of others (Death in the Long Grass, Death in the Dark Continent, etc). Some of my very favorite reading is hearing about him tracking a wounded Leopard or some deadly animal through the scrub. It's almost like I can experience Africa through his written words, since I am very unlikely to ever make it there in the real life. His writing showed not only the romanticism of African hunting but also the hard reality. He expressed views and beliefs I believe every hunter should share.

Anyways I was telling a friend about just finishing Death in the Long Grass and he said that he had heard Peter Capstick was a fraud, that he was never actually a PH at all. I have never heard a word of this elsewhere. Anyone have any input?

PS- Mods, I put this in the hunting section because he was a hunter and hunting writer, but if you feel it should go elsewher feel free to move it.
 
well we do have several folks from the dark continent that post here regular so maybe they can give their opinion...

Brent
 
He was a licensed PH in more than one African country, he did live in Africa for many years and he did a great deal of hunting there but there have been some who claim that not all the stories he told in the first person actually happened to him.

He's a great author and an excellent storyteller and he certainly had experience on the subjects he wrote about. I own all his books as well as some of the videos he made. I don't find that the enjoyment I get from them is diminished by the possibility that he may have now and then been a bit freer with the facts than he would have been under oath. ;)
 
Not a fraud...

But, as JohnSKA alluded to:
I don't find that the enjoyment I get from them is diminished by the possibility that he may have now and then been a bit freer with the facts than he would have been under oath.
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Some information came out more than a decade ago (maybe two?) that showed him to have embellished some stories a bit. None are totally fictional, and not all stories were embellished. Take it for what it's worth.

I'm still willing to read his books without casting judgement on him.
 
I have no problem with his books, and own several. While they may not be 100% factual, they are a good read. And if he mistated his facts in some cases, or omitted facts in other cases...........its still good and enjoyable reading.
 
As if you never embellished a story . . .;)

Peter Capstick was a very good writer, a great sportsman, and a real gentleman. I met him at a social event in Naples, FL back in 1985. He was not totally at ease in large crowds (like most outdoorsmen), but he was really neat to listen to and I enjoyed the evening immensely. I wish I could have gotten to know him personally (of course I can say that about a lot of outdoors writers).

I heard about the allegations that he had made up several stories, and I don't know whether or not to believe them, but it makes no difference. His stories are great reading, and since he is dead and can no longer speak for himself, I think we should just enjoy his books for what they're worth. After all, Hemingway wrote about a lot of stuff that never happened.
 
I always thought he understated situations. And he never claimed to be a hero, usually painted himself as a Nervous Nelly going into the long grass after a wounded leopard or some such. From what I read I would sooner believe he only told half of it, and that the rumors are from the normal crowd of jealous peanut gallery.

Great stories of Africa and South America hunting. Which reminds me, I am missing a couple of his books and need to remedy that.
 
Well that's good news for me. I don't think I have ever enjoyed another writer's stories more. If he embelished here and there, well that's part of telling hunting/fishing stories isn't it? I own most of his books and hopefully the rest soon.
 
Mr. Capstick was real. Did he add a few "facts" to his stories? He very likely did, but then again, who doesn't? Read any of the books by the African hunters and they are all likely to have added a fact or two.

Either way, he's a great story teller and I love his books. If given the chance, I'd hunt with him without fear. (And yes, I know he's deceased.)
 
My grandfather told me, when I was 10, believe half of what you see and nothing that you read. I couldn't understand that at the time but at 61 the older I get the more I agree. That said I see naysayers attacking noted writers such as Elmer Keith, John 'Pondoro' Taylor, and Peter Capstick. Cut from the same cloth as those revisionist historians who paint Wyatt Earp as a bad guy at worst or a fraud at best. I pay little mind to them and enjoy these writers and appreciate the opportunity to read of their experiences. Just IMHO.
 
I own all of Capsticks books and have enjoyed reading them immensley.I have also read all of Jim Corbett's and Kenneth Anderson's books about hunting in India.Add WDM Bell,John Taylor,Sir Samuel Baker,Theodore Roosevelt,Russel Anabell,Jack O'Connor,and on,and on,and on.Great outdoor writers all,and I'm sure none ever fudged a fact(well almost never).I've never read anything from any of the great writers that didn't ring true,even if it was enhanced a little.I'm only sorry I couldn't know these men personally.I might not have liked all of them,but what a fantastic thing it would have been to have been able to discover that for myself.
 
Peter Capstick was a great story teller, his books were able to put you there, in the dust and sweat and a Rhino bearing down on you. However from what I've read, not all the stories he wrote about happened to him. They were real events but they happened to other hunters. He simply worte about them in the " first person". Does that make him any the less as a story teller and writter, not in my book.
 
I have all of Capstick's books. They make very interesting reading. I wish very much that he had not died at such a young age.
 
I don't find that the enjoyment I get from them is diminished by the possibility that he may have now and then been a bit freer with the facts than he would have been under oath.
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Very well put !
More honest than our free press/media where we hear flat out lies daily.And rewriting of history is taught in schools. ;)
 
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