Bring 'Em Back Alive: The Best of Frank Buck [Paperback]

Frank Buck (Author), Steven Lehrer (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2006

“Picture a cross between Clark Gable and that excitable Australian fellow who frolics with alligators on cable TV, and you get something of a picture of Frank Buck.” —San Antonio Express-News. “Fans remember [Buck] as a devoted conservationist—Buck fretted often about the survival of rare species—and intrepid adventurer, whose deeds in Sumatra, Borneo, India and the Philippines wowed folks at home.” —Newsday. “Good, old-fashioned, movie-serial-type adventures in wild, exotic settings.” —Dallas Morning News. “All in all, this is an extremely entertaining book, illustrating a different time and written in a way that brings that time to life.” —Choice. “That this hardy Texan’s celebrity was earned is made evident in a new version of Bring ‘Em Back Alive, . . . a compilation of exciting and often chilling first-person adventures.” —East Texas Historical Association Journal. Frank Buck spent his life capturing alive every kind of animal, from birds to snakes to elephants. The intrepid Texas animal collector and jungle adventurer enthralled generations of readers and moviegoers with the stories of danger and daring collected here.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A Frank Buck fan from boyhood, Steven Lehrer is associate professor of radiation oncology at Mount Sanai School of Medicine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press; 1 edition (June 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896725820
• ISBN-13: 978-0896725829
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435,586 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buck's adventures rolled into one, April 16, 2002

By 

Steven Lehrer (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bring 'Em Back Alive: The Best of Frank Buck (Hardcover)

...

Between 1910 and 1940, when Frank Buck, the big jungle man, did most of his work, cruelty toward wild animals was generally condoned in the name of "hunting" or "sport."

That his trademark motto, "Bring 'em back alive," made him famous, however, indicates that even in his day human consciousness was high enough to appreciate his respect for animals. Today this consciousness is so widespread that no one could become a hero of his stature by trapping jungle animals for profit.

But he understood animals and respected them, even displayed toward them the care of a mother for her child. When they were injured or sick, he personally tended them, a risky business. A 600-pound tapir he was treating almost killed him. A python saw him as a meal, and a cobra spewed deadly venom in his eyes. Attacked by another cobra, he threw his coat over the snake and pounced on it. He held it beneath him as it wriggled to get free until aides could get a grip on its head and pull it out, like a bird extracting a worm from the ground. The python that had him in its grip was one of the very few he had to kill. He managed to get one arm free enough to reach his sidearm; then he put three rounds in the giant reptile's brain.

From his headquarters at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, he operated a collecting network that spanned the lush jungles of Malaya, Borneo, Sumatra and India. Over the years, he brought back hundreds of thousands of birds and animals of all kinds for sale to zoos, circuses and private collectors. In 1922, he provided Dallas with an entire zoo of more than 500 specimens. In 1948, he returned to his hometown of Gainesville, Texas, to dedicate the Frank Buck Zoo and the Frank Buck Zoological Society.

From Mr. Buck's eight books, Steven Lehrer has selected the "best" of the material. He has fine sensibilities as an editor. However, the books are so full of good, old-fashioned, movie-serial-type adventures in wild, exotic settings, that Mr. Lehrer could have closed his eyes and picked 19 chapters that would make a good collection. The surprising thing is that, until now, no one else has.

What few could have done better, however, is write the illuminating introduction summarizing Mr. Buck's early interest in animals and birds as a boy in Plano and along Turtle Creek, and his brief dalliance with crime, marriage and other enterprises before setting out on his lifelong search for "the source of the wind, the mouth of the river, the oceans to which the fish swam, and the far lands to which the birds flew."

Free-lance writer and reviewer Tom Dodge lives in Midlothian; his new book is Tom Dodge Talks About Texas.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CHOICE review, December 6, 2000

By 

Steven Lehrer (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bring 'Em Back Alive: The Best of Frank Buck (Hardcover)

November 2000, p 554 History of Science & Technology

38-1532 QL61 99-86898 CIP

Buck, Frank. Bring 'Em Back Alive: The Best of Frank Buck, ed. by Steven Lehrer. Texas Tech, 2000. 248p bibl index afp ISBN 0-89672-430-1, $28.95

In many ways, this is a delightful book. Buck was a familiar and heroic figure to many growing up in the 1930s and 1940s; the numerous illustrations recapture those days. The great zoos of the day owed much to him, partly for the specimens he obtained for them but even more for the publicity he generated and shared. His exploits could not and should not be repeated today, but that should not detract from the sense of adventure his stories evoke. His persona was mirrored in the white hunter in King Kong (the Fay Wray version), but his real life adventures were even more thrilling. The comments by Lehrer (Mount Sinai School of Medicine) are interesting and useful, and his choices of episodes from various of Buck's books are well done. All in all, this is an extremely entertaining book, illustrating a different time and written in a way that brings that time to life. General readers. -F W. Yow, emeritus, Kenyon College

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless classic of adventure and daring, May 22, 2000

By 

T.J. MCLOUGHLIN - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bring 'Em Back Alive: The Best of Frank Buck (Hardcover)

A timeless classic of adventure and daring for anyone who 'likes to sit on the edge of his chair and gasp for breath.'-New York Times, 1930 In 1930, the publication of Bring 'Em Back Alive, an instant best seller, made its author, Frank Buck, an international celebrity. These animal stories told by the intrepid Texas animal collector and jungle adventurer enraptured generations of boys. Buck spent his life capturing alive every kind of animal, from birds to snakes to elephants. Because there were no tranquilizer darts in those days, he learned to build traps and snares in ways that prevented injury to the animals he caught. Buck always accompanied his animals on shipboard to America to be sure they were well treated, and refused to sell to anyone who did not have an impeccable reputation for animal care. The creator of the Dallas zoo in the 1920s, Buck was a hero ranking with Lindbergh, Ruth, and Dempsey. The dashing and powerful Buck leapt easily from Simon and Schuster's published pages to the silver screen, portraying himself in Wild Cargo and Fang and Claw. This edition, expanded and edited by Steven Lehrer, captures not only the best of Frank Buck, but also the excitement and glamour of an era and lifestyle that still hold readers spellbound.