"Mike Resnick - Hunting Lake" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

And, of course, he tells these tales within the framework of
his life: an American, with American attitudes and an American way
of looking at things, who made his way across the African
continent as a professional hunter. He recalls his clients, both
good and bad, humorous and tragic, with a contagious fondness.
It is amazing to me that this book could have remained out of
print for close to forty years, for it is a pure delight from the
first page to the last. Still, while Lake was obviously a happy
and contented man, true fame eluded him until the last decade of
his life.
He was born Alexander James Lake in Chicago, Illinois, on
July 29, 1893. His father was a Methodist minister, and the family
moved to South Africa in 1908. Lake went to Jeppestown High School
in Johannesburg, and then attended the Marist Brothers College,
where he captained the rifle team that represented the Transvaal
at the All-British Empire Shumaker Cup. His team came in second,
but he himself set a record of 10 bull's-eyes in 11 seconds, which
brought him to the attention of the famed trader Nicobar Jones,
who hired him as a meat hunter, a job that took him to Portugese
East Africa, Tanganyika, Kenya, Uganda, Northern Rhodesia, and
German Southwest Africa. Within a couple of years he was a fully-
fledged and licensed white hunter.
He took time off from his hunting career to fight for the
American forces as a pilot in Europe during World War I, then went
back to his beloved Africa for another twelve years, after which
he returned to the United States, working as a reporter and editor
for a number of newspapers in the Pacific Northwest. Then Africa
called to him once again, and he returned there in 1937 for three
more years. When he came back to the States in 1940, this time to
stay, he met and married his wife, Mildred, and began writing
anything that would sell: African reminiscences, business
articles, even some pulp fiction.
Says his daughter, Storm Alexis Lake: "He loved being the
center of attention, and he was fascinating and fun to be around.
He loved life and lived it to its fullest, with a very wild first
40 years. When he met and fell in love with my mother, he became
tamed and settled down for the first time in his life. It's
amazing what a good woman can do for a man! Once a heavy drinker,
after meeting my mother he never touched alcohol again."
After World War II ended, he and Mildred bought a home on the
Pacific Coast near the California/Oregon border, and he finally
started cracking the major markets -- _Look, Collier's, Time,
Reader's Digest_ -- with his accounts of Africa and hunting. His
main markets, however, were _Field and Stream_ and _Argosy_, where
he delighted in debunking the myths of African hunting and setting
the record straight.
KILLERS IN AFRICA became a bestseller in 1953, and HUNTER'S
CHOICE also made the bestseller lists a year later. These led Lake
to a job as a consultant and writer for Sol Lesser, producer of
the Tarzan films. (In fact, Lake may well be the reason that