Dreaming the Lion [Hardcover]

Thomas McIntyre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 1995

The 23 essays in this collection written by Sports Afield editor McIntyre explore the spell the wild casts over all who go afield with rod or gun. Here are the adventures of a sportsman who has led a charmed life in the outdoors. But here, too, is much more. With wit, insight, and an eloquent voice, McIntyre looks deeply at why we hunt and how the experience enriches us. His subject matter is broad -- from woodcock in Ireland to Dall's sheep in Alaska to Cape buffalo in Africa, from chukars in Idaho to pronghorns in Wyoming to muskox in the Northwest Territories. These stories explore the full range of the hunting experience with some exciting fishing included as well. Running throughout the length of the book is the journal of a safari, the entries linking the essays and providing a transition between them, while at the same time revealing the growth of a young man's feeling about the wild.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

THOMAS MCINTYRE, editor for Sports Afield, has written about the outdoors for neary 30 years and has been fortunate in being able to live much of his life in the open. He is also active in conservation issues. His writing, besides appearing in magazines and in his own books, has been included in several anthologies.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Down East Books; 1st edition (June 28, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0924357347
• ISBN-13: 978-0924357343
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,138,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ed's review of Dreaming the Lion, July 21, 2002

By 

Edward Noonan (Upstate, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreaming the Lion (Hardcover)

Tom McIntyre is one of the last great storytellers. His gift with a pen places the reader right in the middle of all the action. The subject matter within the pages of this book is broad. It ranges from an account of a fantastic woodcock hunt in Ireland to the pursuit of the most dangerous African cape buffalo but never once will you loose interest. Be it his candid views of the cultures surrounding the hunt or the excitement of the actual hunt, you will leave each chapter with a better understanding and respect for both the hunter and his prey.

"Dreaming The Lion" is far from the traditional "hook and bullet" prose found in most of today's hunting publications. Rather it is perhaps more of a modern day Hemmingway approach. It is factual, adventurous and all with just the right touch of humor. All of which I found quite refreshing.

If you are a hunter "Dreaming The Lion" belongs in your library.

Ed Noonan
Member of the Outdoor Writers Assn. of American and
New York State Outdoor Writers Assn.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Miss "Dreaming The Lion", July 17, 2002

By 

Anthony Acerrano (Montana, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreaming the Lion (Hardcover)

Tom McIntyre is a writer with a distinctive voice and an exceptional talent. His style has pith and elegance -and humor and intelligence. For a couple of decades now (maybe a little more) he has written some of the best prose we have on hunting. "Dreaming The Lion" is a treasury of his finest work, and will prove a delight for every literate hunter.

This is by no means a somber book, but it is a thoughtful one. Reflecting on the prospect of hunting in his native California, McIntyre writes, "The best thing would be to hunt the country you were born into, to make it even more your home. But what if your native country is not only a place, but a time, and what if that time is past?" Not exactly the kind of bang-and- brag drivel so common to lesser hunting writers, and to an unfortunately increasing number of "sporting" publications.

"Dreaming The Lion" is a collection of choice pieces, (mostly about hunting, especially but not exclusively about big game,) connected by one-page, inter-chapter selections from an ongoing African diary. In this safari narrative McIntrye appears more as protagonist than hero; he screws up sometimes, misses badly on occasion, has his ups and downs just like we, the readers, probably would. The book's final section, the title essay in three parts, recounts another African adventure and by any fair standard must be judged one of the finest pieces of hunting writing in our time. Comparisons to Hemingway and Ruark and Capstick or anyone else are as unnecessary as they are trite. McIntyre is his own writer, speaking with his own voice in his own (for a hunting writer, not entirely fortunate) time. Enjoy him.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dreaming About Tom McIntyre's Africa, July 12, 2002

By 

Jameson Parker (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreaming the Lion (Hardcover)

When a writer conveys an experience he conveys something of himself. Thirty years after reading him, when I think of Robert Ruark in Africa, I remember his honesty in writing about fear and booze and his struggle to live up to his own image of what he wanted to be, as much as his insightful observations of a safari. When I think of Hemingway, the exquisite craftsmanship of "The Green Hills of Africa" is overshadowed by his chest-thumping competitiveness and dishonest self-aggrandisement.

In "Dreaming the Lion," Tom McIntyre brings all the unabashed, unapologetic masculinity you would expect in a book about hunting, but he tempers it with the thoughtful intelligence of someone who thinks about his actions and their consequences, who thinks about the world around him and his place in it. And more: he brings a refreshing mastery of the English language and a wit as quick and sharp as a skinning knife. This is a book about ideas as much as actions, written by a man who doesn't suffer fools gladly, and who sees the world he loves slowly and irrevocably vanishing. Read it and dream of Africa.