White Hunters

East Africa affects our imagination like few other places: the sight of a charging rhino goes directly to the heart; the limitless landscape of bony highlands, desert and moutains is, as Isak Dinesen wrote, of "unequalled nobility". "White Hunters" is the story of 70 years of African adventure, danger and romance. It recreates the legendary big-game safaris led by Selous and Bell and the daring ventures of early hunters into unexplored territories. The golden age of the African safari is laid bare in this survey of the continent's most storied white hunters, from real-life men who inspired Isak Dinessen's "Out of Africa" to Cape-to-Cairo Grogan, who walked 4000 miles for the love of a woman, and Dinesen's dashing lover Denys Finch. Witnesses to the richest wildlife spectacle on earth, these hunters were the first conservationists. Hard-drinking, infatuated with risk and careless in love, they inspired Hemingway's stories and movies with Clark Gable and Gregory Peck.