The Greatest Hunting Stories Ever Told: Twenty-Nine Unforgettable Hunting Tales [Hardcover]

Lamar Underwood (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000 | Series: Greatest

"I don't regard nature as a spectator sport." -Ed Zern, 1985

Hunting is a serious business-but it's also about camaraderie, achievements and failures, seeing new places, and revisiting cherished ones. The true stories here feature a variety of game, in locations that range from high Yukon Territory mountain peaks to lowland swamps off of Mobile Bay, Alabama.

This is an indispensable volume for all lovers and students of the natural world. If your definition of home includes fields and marshes, creeks and river bottoms, plains and mountains, consider this required reading.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If the captivating smile of a young Hemingway crouched over a lion isn't enough to pull you inside the covers of The Greatest Hunting Stories Ever Told, the remarkable prose you'll find throughout its pages will. Its target is serious writing, and it bags some powerful literary prey. Lamar Underwood, long an editor at Sports Afield and Outdoors, has assembled a stellar collection from the pens of Hemingway (naturally), Faulkner, Turgenev, Thomas McGuane, Vance Bourjaily, Patrick O'Brian, Robert Ruark, and Teddy Roosevelt, all of whose prose hunts for big answers as well as big game.

While clearly addressed to the fraternity of hunters, the essays and stories in this collection transcend the boundaries of the field. McGuane, writing passionately about how the hunt for food defines who we are in "The Heart of the Game," observes, as Sitting Bull did before him, "when the buffalo are gone, we will hunt mice, for we are hunters and we want our freedom." Hemingway, in "Remembering Shooting-Flying," an Esquire column from 1935, keeps world affairs in perspective when he wonders "how the snipe fly in Russia now and whether shooting pheasants is counter-revolutionary." "The Forest and the Steppe" is one of Turgenev's evocative "Hunter's Sketches"; evocative also defines "Mister Howard Was a Real Gent," one of Ruark's marvelous "Old Man and the Boy" contributions to Field & Stream.

Given the overall subject, there is plenty of sporting drama throughout, but also plenty of thoughtful reflection, and absolutely magnificent storytelling, which is as it should be. When you set your sights on the greatest, your aim needs to be true. --Jeff Silverman

Review

"Every once in a while, a book publisher comes up with a great concept for a series of books that deserve more than superficial recognition. Such a series is "The Greatest (fill in the blank) Stories Ever Told", anthologies that should win places on many bedside tables. On the long winter nights that lie ahead, such stories make great reading." --The Lexington County Chronicle

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press; 1st edition (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585741418
• ISBN-13: 978-1585741410
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #999,150 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hunting Tales, December 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Greatest Hunting Stories Ever Told: Twenty-Nine Unforgettable Hunting Tales (Hardcover)

This is a great book for anyone who enjoys short stories, especially hunting tales. It contains a wide range of content from big game hunting to bird hunting. It also contains a wide range of authors from the classics like Hemingway, Faulkner and Teddy Roosevelt to modern jounalists. This book would make a great gift for a hunting or fishing friend or relative

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Hunting Stories Ever Told: Twenty-Nine Unforgettable Tales, December 16, 2005

By 

Mid-Prairie Teen - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Greatest Hunting Stories Ever Told: Twenty-Nine Unforgettable Tales (Paperback)

The Greatest hunting stories is a book with 29 of the greatest hunting stories. One of the stories I like the best is Black Death. This Story is about a cape buffalo that kills a man so an officer must go find the buffalo and kill it before it kills some one else. To find out the thrilling ending read the book. Another story is Good Morning. This story is about a young kid that shoots his first buck. "This is a exciting and thrilling book. It would be good for any hunter at any age." -A teenager from Mid-Prairie High School.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars book, January 26, 2009

By 

Arleen K. Olson (Anoka, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Greatest Hunting Stories Ever Told: Twenty-Nine Unforgettable Tales (Paperback)

bought this for a retired hunter. He loved the stories. Great book for a gift.