Preface to the Paperback Edition
It’s been more than five years since the hardcover edition of this book was published. Much has happened in the world of hunting literature in that time. My coauthor, Peter Fiduccia, came out with a practical and information-filled book about deer hunting, titled, aptly enough, Whitetail Tactics. Turns out Peter is working on another whitetail book right now, one that takes the tactics in his last book to a new level of expertise. When it comes to reading about deer hunting knowledge, you can’t top Fiduccia.
Skyhorse, which publishes Peter’s books, has come out with a host of other new hunting books in the past five years. One of my favorites, by longtime friend Thomas McIntyre, is titled Augusts in Africa: Safaris into the Twilight: Forty Years of Essays and Stories. According to Diana Rupp, editor of Sports Afield magazine, “Whether you’ve watched the sun set over the African savanna over a sundowner after a day of hunting or have only dreamed of doing so, the beautifully written stores in Thomas McIntyre’s new book will plunge you directly into the magic of the Dark Continent.” Or, as Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Caputo says on the back cover, “Only a writer of McIntyre’s caliber can make our most intriguing continent come so alive.”
There’s much more, of course. From the Shooter’s Bible and Gun Trader’s Guide, two annual Skyhorse staples, to tactical books ranging from crossbow hunting (Joe Byers) to bear hunting (Douglas Boze) and waterfowl hunting (Tom Airhart) to more fine literature (Joel Spring’s The Ghosts of Autumn), the field of hunting literature is as rich and varied as the sport of hunting. In this little tome, you’ll get a taste of that variety—with quotes from the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas McGuane, Richard Ford, and E. Donnall Thomas. What better way to spend the off season than to curl up in a big old easy chair and read some of the best of the best.
Jay Cassell
Katonah, NY
Spring 2017
• Jay Cassell with a trophy buck in Michigan.
