Audiobook: American Big-Game Hunting

The first book published by The Boone and Crockett Club founded by Theodore Roosevelt and George Grinnell, who declared in their Editors Note: “Hunting big game in the wilderness is, above all things, a sport for a vigorous and masterful people. The rifle-bearing hunter, whether he goes on foot or on horseback, whether he voyages in a canoe or travels with a dog-sled, must be sound of body and firm of mind, and must possess energy, resolution, manliness, self-reliance, and capacity for hardy self-help. In short, the big-game hunter must possess qualities without which no race can do its life-work well; and these are the very qualities which it is the purpose of this Club, so far as may be, to develop and foster.”

A bit outdated as to the equipment they used, this book is nevertheless an intense look at the west in early days, and at the beginnings of the conservationist movement in America. Each chapter focuses on a different animal, from buffalo, mountain goat, elk, pronghorn sheep, grizzlies, etc., indigenous peoples, different areas like the Rockies and Yellowstone, and it still captures the essence of the spirit of the hunt.

The book ends with a list of the club’s original 100 members, a veritable Who’s Who of Generals, Colonels, Doctors, Senators and Representatives, amongst them that most illustrious Gen’l William T. Sherman. ( ~ Michele Fry, read by LibriVox Volunteers)