Robert Ruark

To them, the Mao Mao was the ultimate horrifying bogeyman.

The journalist Robert Ruark wrote a massive sensationalized feature for Life magazine and later a bestselling novel titled Something of Value.

I've heard of that.

He portrayed the African continent as possessing a basic impulsive savagery that is greater than anything we civilized people have encountered in two centuries.

It has been said that the .404 Jeffery did all the work in Africa, but the .416 Rigby got all the glory.

Now, the cartridge got an even bigger boost to its image when a young man named Harry Selby guided American author Robert Ruark on his safari in the 1950s, which he immortalized in the book Horn of the Hunter.

It was only through an odd twist of fate that Selby used a .416 Rigby rifle on that hunt, though.

Long story short, Selby had previously used a double in .470 Nitro Express, but Donald Kerr unintentionally ran over that rifle with a vehicle on a previous hunt.

The, the...

I keep thinking about, and people listen to this that have young kids and grandkids, there's a book, Robert Ruark, The Old Man and the Boy.

Absolutely.

Are you familiar with it?