The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford
I decided to read this novel after reading A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway because of the chapter “Ford Madox Ford and the Devil’s Disciple”. I am a big fan of 20th century literature, especially the expat crowd that hung out on the Paris Left Bank and I had never read anything by Ford. I was surprised to find that The Good Soldier was high on several lists of greatest novels and some have even called it one of the greatest novels ever written. I have never seen much commentary or mention of it until I looked for it and doubt that I would have ever paid him any attention if it were not for his association with Hemingway.
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Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela
Long Walk to Freedom is an autobiography written by South African President Nelson Mandela. It was first published in 1994. The book covers his early years as a child, his education and 27 years in prison. He was jailed at the infamous Robben Island for his role as a leader of the ANC. Under the apartheid government he was regarded as a terrorist. Later, after release from prison, he was to become the President of South Africa and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
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A Moveable Feast, The Restored Edition - Ernest Hemingway
I greatly enjoyed this version of A Moveable Feast. The first posthumously published edition came out in 1964 and was edited by Mary Hemingway. The new edition has a forward by Patrick Hemingway and was edited by Sean Hemingway and includes material that was left out of the first edition.
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A River Runs Through It - Norman Maclean
“So it is… that we can seldom help anybody. Either we don’t know what part to give or maybe we don’t like to give any part of ourselves. Then, more often than not, the part that is needed is not wanted. And even more often, we do not have the part that is needed. It is like the auto-supply shop over town where they always say, ‘Sorry, we are just out of that part.”
- Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It
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Ernest Hemigway, A Biography by Mary V. Dearborn
On a Ketchum memorial to Hemingway’s memory is an inscription that reads, “Best of all he loved the Fall/ The leaves yellow on the cottonwoods/ Leaves floating on trout streams/ And above the hills/ The high blue windless skies/ …. Now he will be part of them forever.” These are the words Ernest wrote about another Sun Valley Friend, Gene Van Guilder, for his funeral in 1939.
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The Longest Silence, A Life in Fishing - Thomas McGuane
The Longest Silence is a collection of 40 essays by Thomas McGuane. It covers a lot of territory in the fly-fishing world from trout fishing in the Western Rivers of the United States to fishing for tarpon and permit in the waters of the Florida Keys to salmon fishing in Russia. In these essays he contemplates the progression of the sport and how things like technology and the general competitive nature of our society may be eroding away some of the pleasurable elements of fishing, especially fly fishing, that are more esoteric. His experience in fishing for saltwater species in the sixties and seventies before the sport gained more popularity helps show some of the progression of the sport to where it is today.
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The Spanish American War, 1898 Albert A. Nofi
Albert Nofi presents a well written narrative of the Spanish American War of 1898. It covers the usual colorful aspects of the war to include the infamous Rough Riders led by Teddy Roosevelt. Most of what is written about this conflict is focused on the group of heroes that emerged from this conflict and went on to become famous in American Politics. In this book Nofi also gives serious attention to describing the Spanish Army, the relic of an Empire in Decline, however still well trained and equipped. It also covers the war in Puerto Rico which included some clever tactical maneuvering by the infamous Indian fighter Nelson A. Miles. It is a good read on the history of this important part of American History and gives some greater context than can be gained in other books I have read on the subject that have been primarily focused on Roosevelt and Leonard Wood.
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Theodore Roosevelt in the Field, Michael R. Canfield
heodore Roosevelt is my favorite president and is one of my favorite historical figures. He as a man of action and adventure. When one sees pictures of Roosevelt he is invariably involved in some sort of action such as riding a horse, on safari, or standing on the edge of a cliff. He was a true renaissance man, an intellectual and author of numerous books, a naturalist, rancher, soldier, statesman, conservationist and sporting man. It is in the field that Roosevelt shined and where his passion for the “strenuous life, and his drive for scientific discovery and conquest were most apparent.
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F.A. Mitchell Hedges, Land of Wonder and Fear
“The lure of the jungle is irresistible; and when once the untrammeled freedom of the wilds has been known the life of a great city in comparison appears insanity.”
- F.A. Mitchell Hedges
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The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea is a short novel authored by Ernest Hemingway. I have read it several times, each time in one sitting. It is more of a novelette or extended short story in my mind. He wrote Old Man and the Sea in 1951 while in Cuba. I was the last major work of fiction published by Hemingway in his lifetime. It is arguably one of his most famous works and tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba. Through his struggle Santiago demonstrates the ability of the human spirit to endure hardship and suffering in order to win. In 1953 the Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and it’s authoring was cited as a contributing factor to the Nobel Committee awarding Hemingway the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
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A Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa, Frederick Courteney Selous
Frederick Selous is generally acknowledged as the greatest African Hunter of all time. He also served in the British Army under Cecil Rhodes and was instrumental in opening Rhodesia after the winning of the Second Matebele War. He was a close personal friend of Theodore Roosevelt and the African wing of the British Museum of Natural History is named after him. The largest nature reserve in the world, Tanzania’s Selous Reserve is named after him. Roosevelt said, “there was never a more welcome guest at the White House than Frederick Selous.” Roosevelt added that “it is well for any country to produce men of such a type; and if there are enough of them the nation need fear no decadence.”
A Hunter’s Wanderings in Africa was first published in 1881, it is an excellent example of adventure literature and a must read for anyone who is serious about big game hunting in Africa and for anyone interested in the history of Africa, especially hunting on the dark continent during the golden age of African Hunting.
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Horn of the Hunter, Robert C. Ruark
“The hunter’s horn sounds early for some, later for others. For some unfortunates, poisoned by city sidewalks and sentenced to a cement jungle more horrifying that anything to be found in Tanganyika, the horn of the hunter never winds as all. But deep in the gut of most men is buried the involuntary response to the hunter’s horn, a prickle of the nape hairs, an acceleration of the pulse, an atavistic memory of their forefathers, who killed first with stone, and then with club, and then with spear, and then with bow, and then with gun, and finally with formulae.”
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Rough Riders, Mark Lee Gardner
This is a book about Theodore Roosevelt and his cowboy regiment, and the immortal charge up San Juan Hill. This is an excellent book that is first-rate history and an excellent portrayal of Theodore Roosevelt’s extraordinary life. Gardner brings to life the epic period of American history in such a way that you can smell the saddle leather, gunsmoke, and hear the guidons snapping in the wind. This is a story about one of my favorite characters and a war that I have always had a fascination with
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A Concise History of the Spanish Civil War, Paul Preston
No war in modern times has inflamed the passions of both ordinary people and intellectuals in the way the conflict in Spain in 1936 did. The Spanish Civil War in burned into the European consciousness, not simply because it prefigured the much larger war that followed it, but because the intense manner of its prosecution was a harbinger of a new and horrific form of warfare that was universally dreaded. At the same time the hopes awakened by the attempted social revolution in the republican Spain chimed with the aspiration of many in Europe and the United States during the grim years of the Depression.
I read this book to get a deeper understanding of the tensions in Spain that persist to this day as I planned a second trip to Catalonia for a horse trekking trip. Shortly after reading this history I picked up Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls again and I was able to make a deeper connection to the characters in this classic novel with a greater understanding of the context that the story takes place in.
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Hero of The Empire, Candice Millard
This is a book about Winston Churchill. This is an excellent example of adventure literature, it is skillfully written, very readable and enjoyable. The story takes place during the Second Boer War fought between the British Empire and two Boer states, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, over the Empire's influence in South Africa. Churchill was busting at the bitts to get into the war and was successful in getting into the action, was captured and then made a daring escape that helped launch his political career.
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The River of Doubt, Candice Millard
At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth. This is the second book by Millard I have read, and both have been excellent pieces of adventure literature. The story is skillfully portrayed, and the story is riveting. Roosevelt is one of my favorite historical figures and this expedition was his last great adventure and one that he came close to not returning from. Reading this book has inspired me to book a trip to the Amazon in 2020 to fish and explore this most interesting part of the world.
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