In the view of many serious students of American sporting literature, no writer has captured the joys associated with the outdoors in more vivid or enduring fashion than Robert Ruark. Several of his classic stories immortalize dog-Hunting for deer in the Deep South the way it used to be.
By Jim Casada
In addition to writing a number of best-selling novels in the 1950s and '60s and two highly popular books on hunting in Africa, Robert Ruark wrote stories of his boyhood growing up in coastal North Carolina that have endeared him to millions of readers. Both books are still in print. Ruark died in 1965
Although Robert Ruark wrote a number of blockbuster novels in the 1950s and '60s, his contributions to the literature of hunting and fishing represent his greatest legacy to posterity. In the eyes of many discerning critics, his Africa-related book, Horn of the Hunter, surpasses Ernest Hemingway's The Green Hills of Africa in terms of readability and authenticity.
But two books based on his boyhood experiences growing up in eastern North Carolina, The Old Man and the Boy (published in 1957) and The Old Man's Boy Grows Older (published in 1961), have endeared Ruark to three generations of readers.
Ruark was born on Dec. 29, 1915, in Southport, North Carolina, the son of a bookkeeper and a schoolteacher. By the time he reached adulthood, both parents had become pretty much dysfunctional, thanks to drug addiction and alcoholism. Yet Ruark, at least in print, turned what might have been a tragic childhood into a triumph. This came through his interaction with the "Old Man," a character based in part on his maternal grandfather but also including elements of his paternal grandfather and "all the honorary uncles, black and white, who took me to raise."
A REAL FINE TIME
Pretty much a loner as far as interaction with boys his age was concerned, Ruark was quite satisfied to be in the woods alone or in the company of adult mentors. As he states in his author's note to The Old Man and the Boy, "Anybody who reads this book is bound to realize that I had a real fine time as a boy." The best and most impressionable of those good times were spent in the company of the "Old Man," Captain Edward Hall Adkins.
Adkins was an endearing figure, full of wit and wisdom, a dispenser of homespun philosophy, and the source for a seemingly endless store of outdoor lore. Mind you, the Old Man could be vinegary at times, such as the occasion when he thrashed an inebriated, insolent dandy who persisted in unacceptable behavior, or when "the Boy" (Ruark) violated some basic concept of sporting ethics or hunting safety.
Mostly though, the Old Man, for all that he seemed crusty and perhaps a bit of a curmudgeon, was a gentle figure of great humanity and a wealth of common sense. He used his shrewd mind and superb intellect to good advantage with his youthful protégé, and in the Boy's eyes "he knows pretty well near-about everything." Certainly the Old Man imbued Ruark with a genuine love of learning, along with extensive practical exposure to knowledge of the outdoors.
Theirs was a timeless partnership, similar to that of anyone fortunate enough to have had close contact with his or her grandfather in an outdoor setting. There's something about skipping a generation that lends itself to closeness, and many of us have been privileged to experience this kind of contact. What sets Ruark apart was his subsequent ability to capture in prose the nostalgic wonder of those enchanting, fleeting days of youth. In doing so, he gave us a timeless literary gift.
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