Tales of pursuing turkeys, deer, ducks, and partridges through the fields, forests, and swamps of South Carolina Henry Edwards Davis (1879-1966) began his hunting adventures as a boy riding in the saddle with his father on foxhunts and deer drives in the company of Confederate cavalry veterans. Born on Hickory Grove Plantation in Williamsburg County, South Carolina, Davis developed his taste for the hunt at an early age. In later years he became a renowned sportsman and expert on sporting firearms. Published here for this first time after a four-decade-long hiatus, his collection of southern hunting tales describes his many experiences in pursuit of turkeys, deer, ducks, and partridges through the fields, forests, and swamps of South Carolina's Pee Dee region. His memoir offers a lucid firsthand account of a time before paved roads and river-spanning bridges had penetrated the rural stretches of Williamsburg and Florence counties, when hunting was still one of a southerner's chief social activities. With a sportsman's interest and a historian's curiosity, Davis intersperses his hunting narratives with tales of the region's rich history, from before the American Revolution to his times in the first half of the twentieth century. Davis, a connoisseur of fine sporting firearms, also chronicles his personal experiences with a long line of rifles and shotguns, beginning with his first "Old Betsy," a fourteen-gauge, cap-lock muzzleloader, and later with some of the finest modern American and British shotguns. He describes as well a host of small-bore rifles, many of which he assembled himself, bedding the barrels and actions in hand-carved stocks. Edited by retired lowcountry game warden Ben McC. Moïse and featuring a foreword by outdoor writer Jim Casada, Davis's memoir is a valuable account of hunting lore and historic firearms, as well as a record of evolving cultural attitudes and economic conditions in post-Reconstruction South Carolina and of the practices that gave rise to modern natural conservation efforts.

A Sportsman's Journey lyrically and spiritually connects readers with the natural world. Donald C. Jackson explores the rhythms and ways of hunting and fishing, particularly in America’s Deep South, and in so doing helps readers understand and find meaning in why hunters and anglers venture far afield. Journeying alongside the author, readers will savor the magic of sunrises and the mystery of twilight. Hearts will quicken as deer drift from shadows and ducks circle a woodland pond. The ocean will challenge them as they fight large fish from the deck of a wave-tossed boat far out at sea. Restless winds will whisper messages during a spring squirrel hunt on a Mississippi farm. Bird dogs, old guns, old friends, and times shared with loved ones will remind anglers and hunters of those special, shared memories. Ancient forests and powerful rivers remind us of our fragile, ephemeral state. Quail hunts strengthen cherished relationships with companions. Encounters with a mountain man will take us into a world thought to have vanished generations ago. A gathering of anglers on a Gulf Coast fishing pier at night reminds us of those hidden communities that exist around us, and are often unrecognized or perhaps even unknown. Jackson reveals how all of us depend on the natural world and share very personal interactions with it and with each other. This book reminds us that rediscovering, resurrecting, and celebrating these primal linkages are the real reasons we explore the world.

In the tradition of Hemingway and Faulkner, this sporting novel looks into the complicated heart and soul of a passionately devoted outdoorsman. Aleck Maury is a teacher and scholar whose pursuit of sport comes at the expense of his career, and often, his family. Gaining deep satisfaction in the rituals and techniques of angling and shooting, Maury elevates to an art form what to most is a pastime. To pursue the mysteries of blood and death, nature and solitude, he endures almost any hardship. In his own words Maury recalls his childhood, courtship and marriage, the loss of loved ones, and his final years. Along the way, his story is filled with fascinating digressions into the woods and mountains of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee where his fly-fishing and quail shooting adventures unfold, all of them filled with hunting lore and keen observations on nature and animal behavior.

Intimate glimpses into the daily life of a South Carolina family Reprinted here for the first time in more than forty years is Rice Planter and Sportsman: The Recollections of J. Motte Alston, 1821-1909. This lively memoir offers a candid look into the daily life of a Low Country South Carolina family, as well as commentary and opinion about such matters as rice cultivation, slavery, and the sporting life. J. Motte Alston's memoirs, originally numbering more than five hundred pages, were never intended for official publication. Alston wrote for his grandson, who was fascinated by his family's personal history and how it fit into the larger context of South Carolina and the southern region. For the Alstons, family was more than a domestic affair. It was also a powerful economic consortium. The buying or selling of land and the building or leasing of houses; the management of each detail of the rice crop; the decision to marry, to have children, or to summer in the mountains--all were more than private or economic decisions. Alston included such details to help his grandson navigate the often tense waters of family affairs. Rice Planter and Sportsman also offers an entertaining look at the sport of the day. Much of the land on which Alston hunted with such success is now in privately owned game preserves, running from the rivers to the coast. Alston also included many details on the abundance of fish and game throughout the South Carolina Low Country and Blue Ridge Mountains. Franklin Burroughs' evocative and warm personal memoir conveys the story of the Alstons and places this memoir firmly in its broader historical context.

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