Peter Hathaway Capstick
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Peter Hathaway Capstick (1940-1996) was a famous American hunter and author. Born in New Jersey and educated at the University of Virginia, he walked away from a successful Wall Street career shortly before his thirtieth birthday to become a professional hunter first in Central and South America and later--and most famously--in Africa. Capstick spent much of his life in Africa, a land he called his "source of inspiration." Though he spent decades hunting some of the world's most dangerous game, his death did not come from a lion's jaws or an elephant's tusks. A chain-smoker and heavy drinker, he died at the relatively young age of 56 from complications following heart surgery.
After a short career as a Wall Street stockbroker, Capstick headed to Latin America. There he traveled widely while hunting, fishing, and mastering the Spanish language. After a few years he returned to New York, where he founded a business arranging professionally guided hunting trips. Shortly thereafter he took a position as Hunting & Fishing Director of Winchester Adventures of New York, a safari booking agency. In that capacity he made his first trip to Africa in 1968. He then began working as a professional hunter and game ranger in Zambia, Botswana, and Rhodesia.
Capstick began writing about his adventures in the late 1960s and soon published numerous articles in various sporting magazines. In 1977 he published his first book--Death in the Long Grass--which became a major commercial success and established his reputation as a spinner of hair-raising adventure yarns. He subsequently went on to become the world's best selling hunting author with a string of books detailing his own adventures as well as those of other well known hunters.
While Capstick's name frequently comes up in the same breath as Hemmingway's and Ruark's in discussions of influential African hunting authors, some have questioned the truthfulness of his writings. Capstick has been accused of embellishing his stories--often to the point of outright fabrication--and of retelling the adventures of others as if they had happened to himself. Nonetheless, his abilities as a riveting storyteller and creative (if somewhat folksy and informal) prose stylist are beyond dispute.
In early 1996 Capstick was a keynote speaker at the annual Safari Club International convention in Reno, Nevada when he collapsed in his hotel room and was diagnosed with exhaustion. He was immediately flown back to his adopted country of South Africa and underwent heart bypass surgery in a Pretoria hospital. He died just before midnight on March 13th due to complications from surgery.
After a small private ceremony, his ashes were scattered over the Chobe River in northeastern Botswana.
The .470 Capstick rifle cartridge, developed by A-Square's Colonel Arthur B. Alphin in 1990, bears his name. His legacy is also saluted by The Dallas Safari Club's annual Peter Hathaway Capstick Hunting Heritage Award for the promotion of responsible hunting and wildlife conservation.
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[edit] Controversy
There have been discussions pertaining to Capstick's actual credentials regarding his hunting experiences. Ray Ordorica from Gun Tests magazine maintains that Capstick was "the worst kind of charlatan," "a bartender," and "a standing joke to those who indeed were African professional hunters" (Gun Tests, February 2008 Vol. XX, No.2); Ordorica offers no corroboration of his claims other than suggesting readers contact "my friends at Holland & Holland."
If Capstick in fact played SCI and his other admirers for fools, there is irony: the subject of his last book, Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, was exposed as also making up a lot of his stories.
[edit] Bibliography
- A Man Called Lion
- African Adventurers: A Return To Silent Places, The
- Death in a Lonely Land
- Death in the Dark Continent
- Death in the Long Grass
- Death in the Silent Places
- Last Ivory Hunter, The
- Last Horizons
- Maneaters
- Peter Capstick's Africa : A Return To The Long Grass
- Sands of Silence
- Safari: the Last Adventure
- Warrior: the Legend of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen
[edit] Filmography
- Capstick - Botswana Safari
- Capstick - Hunting the White Rhino
- Capstick - Hunting the African Elephant
- Capstick - Hunting the African Lion
- Capstick - Hunting the Cape Buffalo
- Capstick - Botswana Safari
- Capstick's Last Safari
[edit] References
- Capstick, Peter (1990). Death In A Lonely Land. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-03810-6.
- Alphin, Arthur B. (1996). Any Shot You Want: The A-Square Handloading & Rifle Manual. Kentucky: On-Target Press. ISBN 0-9643683-1-5.
