Cassell Jay - The Little Red Book of Hunters Wisdom

Copyright 2011, 2017 by Jay Cassell and Peter Fiduccia All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation. Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file. ISBN: 978-1-61608-393-9 Cover design by Tom Lau Cover photo credit: iStockphoto Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-1900-2 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-1905-7 Printed in China Photo Credits: Ted Rose: Jay Cassell: Peter Fiduccia: Shutterstock: Contents Peter Fiduccia with bull moose, Newfoundland. Preface to the Paperback Edition I ts 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 cant top Fiduccia. Skyhorse, which publishes Peters 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 youve 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 McIntyres 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 McIntyres caliber can make our most intriguing continent come so alive.

Theres much more, of course. From the Shooters Bible and Gun Traders 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 Springs The Ghosts of Autumn), the field of hunting literature is as rich and varied as the sport of hunting. In this little tome, youll get a taste of that varietywith 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 with Osceola gobbler, Lakeland, Florida. Jay Cassell with Osceola gobbler, Lakeland, Florida.

Introduction T he Little Red Book of Hunters Wisdom is a compilation of thought-provoking quotes about huntingsome old, some recent, some by well-known people, some by everyday folks. Our intention is that, if you take them as a whole, they will give you an overview of what this great sport of hunting is all about. Peter and I assembled these quotesall 363 of themfrom a myriad of sources: my personal library, Peters library, public libraries, websites, books lent to us by friends, the list goes on and on. When all is said and done, doing the research for this book was as much fun as actually assembling it. While the majority of the quotes are from books that Peter and I have read and remembered, many were taken from books that we researchedbooks that we knew about, but never had the chance to read. I knew, for example, that the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev had written about hunting in the nineteenth century; yet I had never read his Sportsmans Sketches before.

What a fine piece of literature, what remarkable powers of observation. I returned that book to my local library, in South Salem, New York, and made a mental note to borrow it again. There are other books I plan to revisit, some that I read more than 25 years ago, some Ive never read. What a pleasure it was to once again read The Leatherstocking Tales, by James Fenimore Cooper, which I hadnt looked at since high school. What joy I felt to open Hemingways Green Hills of Arica, another book I hadnt read in years. Others I have read recently.

Rudyard Kiplings The Jungle Books have always been among my favorites: My father read them to me when I was a boy, and I did the same with my children. I continue to pick up the two volumes and read them from time to time. Its always inspiring to read about the boy Mowgli, growing up with wolves; and the mongoose, Rikki-tikki-tavi, living with a human family and protecting them from Nag and Nagaina, the sinister cobras that inhabit the garden. Some of the quotes in this book are from my mental librarypassages I have read and remembered over the years, from stories I have enjoyed and related to. Lost, by Burton Spiller, always struck a chord with me. What hunter hasnt considered the consequences of getting lost deep in the woods, with daylight fading? The story took on special meaning to me when I became seriously turned around while deer hunting in Maines Allagash region in the late 1980s: The temperature was near zero, the sun had dropped behind Mount Katahdin, and I was lost.

Like Spiller, I made mistakesin my case, I didnt trust my compass, and I set off in momentary panic, when I should have simply stopped and taken some time to calm down and think things through. Ultimately I did stop, and was able to figure out how to get back to camp. Thomas McGuanes Heart of the Game has always meant something special to me, echoing my own feelings of the hunt. So has John Millers Deer Camp, which reminds me of my own hunting club in New Yorks Catskill Mountains, where 10 of us convene every November to live in a tar-paper shack and hunt whitetails along the Neversink River. Everything written by Theodore Roosevelt and Jos Ortega y Gasset commands my attention. James R. James R.

Pierces piece on old hunting buddies always stirs me, especially because I hunted with him for many years, and through his last season. And many may not know it, but Lee Wulff, world famous as a fisherman, was also a dedicated deer and bird hunter. I had the chance to hunt with Lee a number of times, and his observations on the natural world, both spoken and written, were unparalleled. We have included other friends and acquaintances in this volume, not simply beause we know them, but because the people whom we often find ourselves around have as deep a feeling for the outdoors as we do. Tom McIntyre, Mark Sullivan, T. Edward Nickens, Lamar Underwood, and Ted Nugent have many differing opinions, yet each has the same respect for the animals we hunt.