Many of Southport's older houses have been restored to their 19th century splendor. Homes of
interest include the Adkins-Ruark House, where author Robert Ruark spent many of
his boyhood summers and which inspired him to write
The Old Man and the Boy.
Biographical Note
Robert Chester Ruark Jr., was born in Wilmington, N.C., on 29 December 1915. He started college
at age 15 at the University of North Carolina and was graduated with an A.B. in journalism in
June 1935. After graduation, he worked as a cub reporter for the Hamlet News Messenger and later
transferred to the Sanford Herald. During the next few years, Ruark worked as an accountant
with the Works Progress Administration in Washington, D.C., enlisted as an ordinary seaman,
and worked at the Washington Post and the Star before settling down at the Washington Daily
News. In 1938, he married Virginia Webb, an interior decorator from Washington, D.C.
During World War II, Ruark joined the Navy as a gunnery officer and later became a press censor
the Pacific. He returned to the Washington Daily News in 1945 to become a syndicated columnist.
During this time, he began writing. His first novel, Grenadine Etching, was published in 1947.
It was followed by
I Didn't Know It Was Loaded(1948), One for the Road (1949), and Grenadine's
Spawn (1952). Ruark also published articles regularly in the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers,
Pic, Esquire, and Field and Stream.
After 1950, Ruark began spending time in Africa. In 1953, he published Horn of the Hunter : The Story of an African Hunt,
about an African safari, and
Something of Value in 1955.
Something of Value, based on the
Mau Mau uprisings, was a major success. He made over a million dollars on the royalties and
the film rights which he sold to Metro Goldwyn Mayer. After visiting North Carolina in 1957,
Ruark permanently settled in Spain. He wrote three autobiographical novels,
The Old Man and the Boy
(1957), Poor No More (1959), and The Old Man's Boy Grows Older (1961). In 1962, he published
another work on race relations in Africa, Uhuru and his last book was The Honey Badger published
in 1964. Ruark died while receiving medical attention for an attack in June 1965.
From: Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. Ed. William S. Powell.
Robert Ruark's Africa
Something of Value
Uhuru
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
The Lost Classics
Review
From the Publisher
These are the magazine stories that Ruark wrote in the 1950s and 1960s, but were
never published in book form. Some of these stories will make you laugh outloud
while others will bring a tear to the eye of even the toughest disposition. Ruark
was one of America's most enduring writers whose hunting and outdoor stories are
timeless. His work transcends generations, and his words delight readers regardless of age.
The Lost Classics will have you reminiscing of bygone days while you read about
"The Old Man and the Boy, "Stories from Down Home," "The Boy Expands His Horizons,"
and "Papa Hemingway." The final section includes stories that Ruark wrote about himself
and is entitled "Ruark on Ruark." Includes a lengthy biographical sketch by Dr. Jim Casada
as well as a detailed bibliographical appendix on all of Ruark's books and papers.
Horn of the Hunter : The Story of an African Hunt hardcover edition
Horn of the Hunter softcover edition
Review From the Publisher
Ruark's most sought-after book is back in print. In the early 1950s famous newspaper
columnist Robert Ruark and his wife, Virginia, went to British East Africa
(now Kenya and Tanzania) for a nine-week safari with their professional hunter,
Harry Selby. The three of them, along with a group of native runners, a Jeep, and
an old lorry, ventured into the bush for an adventure none of them soon forgot-and
neither will you! In this book Ruark shares with you the ferocity of the wounded
buffalo and the acid sweat of fear-no other book will give you the "feel" of Africa
like this one can.
Ron Mottern (judymo@flash.net) from Austin, TX , March 9, 1999
Ruark's Africa is excellent entertainment.
For those of us who were born a couple of generations after Robert
Ruark hunted the African veldt and who cut our teeth on Peter Capstick's
prose, this book is a must read. Ruark's tales harken to a halcyon age when
hunters were still expected to follow up their own game, cut their own
roads through the bush and build their own bridges. Anyone who has ever been
bitten by the Africa bug, who has ever longed to seek out and kill something
that could kill him in return and who has ached to feel his soul sweat in the
glorious exertion of the hunt will appreciate Ruark's tales. Any collection on
hunting or Africana is incomplete without this volume. Any collection on man
searching for himself is incomplete without this book.
pkurtz@sprintmail.com from Florida , June 20, 1998
The best true life horror story I ever read and so much more!
I spent three of the
most impressionable years of my life in Kenya in the early '70's as a State Department
dependant. Even then, the Mau Mau uprising had a strong influence on day to day life
in Kenya. Gun control laws were among the most strict in the world and for good reason.
During my three years in Kenya I heard many stories from people who lived through the
emergency. Most of these stories made Stephen King novels sound like childrens' tales.
I could not count the times I've read both Uhuru and Something Of Value and each time
they have taken me back in time to the Norfolk or New Stanley hotel. Everything
about the book, from the safaris, to the uprising, are totally authentic. While this
is not a "feel good" book, anyone who has a interest in East African history, or just
wants to read on of the great books of this century MUST read this book. Even though
this is a book of fiction, it should be required reading for anyone studying the
history of Kenya. Make no mistake, most of the things written about in this book,
no matter how disturbing, actually happened.
A reader , February 18, 1997
This is a riveting work of fiction which also presents a view of black Africa that
is not only historically accurate for its setting in the early 60's during the
independence movements on the continent, but is contemporary in its realistic
assessment of the seemingly unchanging native cultures and philosophies without
being bound by political correctness. If one wishes to understand what has occurred
and is occuring in black Africa, this is a book to read.
Shawn Colvin - One of my favorite singer-songwriters. Check her out if you haven't!
Jimmy Buffett - Get me a Corona and a Cheeseburger!
An Epic Adventure told entirely in verse
Who wrote The Big Sleep? Click here and find out!
