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The Professional Hunters
"It may well seem...that J.A. has always been given the 'dirty end of the stick.' This is true, and has been because he has wanted it, and because he has been fitted for it by his great qualities: unrivaled experience and knowledge of animal behavior, surpassing skill and speed in handling firearms, and most importantly perhaps, an equable temperament and iron nerve, a formidable combination." Ritchie concludes his essay on Hunter thus: "...I can pay no greater tribute to his prowess than is provided by the fact that he is still alive..."
JOHN HENRY SELBY 1925-
Like Percival, Harry Selby became famous through an accident of employment. In 1951 he was an accomplished PH in his mid-twenties. By all accounts he was very good, but by his own account he was no better than dozens of his peers. But then he was assigned to hunt with an American newspaper columnist named Robert Ruark.
Harry Selby (left) and Robert Ruark with a great pair of elephant tusks, photographed at the Mount Kenya Safari Club near Nanyuki, Kenya.
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Ruark's wildly successful account of the safari, Horn of the Hunter, holds up well as perhaps the best "first safari" book ever written. After a second safari with Selby in 1953, Ruark wrote his best novel, Something of Value. Ruark's character "Peter McKenzie" is based very loosely around Selby. The book was incredibly successful, as was the movie.
Born in South Africa, John Henry "Harry" Selby was a bit young for World War II, but one of his brothers-in-law served with Philip Percival in the Ethiopian campaign. On his brother-in-law's recommendation, Percival took on young Harry as soon as safari work resumed.
After a few years, he joined Syd Downey and Donald Ker's prestigious Ker & Downey safari company, which later became even more famous as Ker, Downey & Selby.
This is believed to be the lion that severely mauled a PH just prior to being shot by a client of Harry Selby (left).
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For twenty years he hunted professionally throughout East Africa, taking safaris not only throughout Kenya, but down into Tanganyika and up into Uganda and the Sudan. He was among the first to scent the winds of change in East Africa.
AFRICA'S WORDSMITHS
Explore the books that made these professional hunters legendary. |
None of the three PHs I've discussed would be as well known if they hadn't written books themselves or been written about. Most prolific was J.A. Hunter. His first three books, White Hunter, Hunter and Hunter's Tracks are well-written accounts of his personal exploits, the last also containing an intricate tale of ivory poaching and smuggling. His last book, Tales of the African Frontier (1957), is about the hunters and settlers of the early days of Kenya Colony. All four remain in print to this day.
Harry Selby hasn't yet written a book of his own, but he didn't need to in order to become famous. Robert Ruark's writings about him were so popular and successful that, since the 1950s, Selby has literally defined "professional hunter." The two books that specifically mention Selby by name--Horn of the Hunter and the posthumous collection Use Enough Gun--are the two Ruark titles that remain in print today.
Philip Percival completed a manuscript that was published in a small run after his death (Hunting, Settling, and Remembering), but regrettably it's out of print. But, like Selby, Percival didn't need to write his own books to become famous. After all, he had the likes of Roosevelt (African Game Trails) and Hemingway to do that for him.
The best source for books on Africa is Safari Press, Dept. HM, 15621 Chemical Ln., Huntington Beach, CA 92649; (714) 894 9080; www.safaripress.com. |
In the early 1960s he took exploratory safaris into the Protectorate of Bechuanaland (which became Botswana in 1966). He found a paradise of game that, in his view, offered a better future for the safari industry than what remained in Kenya. He set up shop in Botswana and over time was joined by a number of fine Kenyan and southern Africa hunters in what became one of Africa's most respected firms, Safari South.
A Botswana citizen, Selby is now (more or less) retired in Maun. He's a quiet, unassuming man who never sought (and has never much liked) the limelight Robert Ruark thrust him into. He served as a PH every season since 1945 until his partial retirement just a couple of years ago. No professional hunter in the history of African hunting can claim so long a run.
Throughout his incredible career neither Selby nor any of his clients were ever touched by a dangerous animal. This takes a bit of luck as well as exceptional skill and remains as fine a tribute as can be offered to the title "professional hunter."
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