Introduction to Killers in Africa
by Mike Resnick

There have been five great American writers on the subject of Africa. Two of them, Ernest Hemingway and Robert Ruark, are more famous for their fiction, and remain in print all over the world today. A third, former president Theodore Roosevelt, wrote just one book about Africa, the classic _African Game Trails_; it is not only an excellent book in itself, but because of who its author was, it has remained in print for three-quarters of a century. The fourth, Peter Hathaway Capstick, is the most recent of the batch, and is still producing excellent books about Africa for St. Martin's Press and various other publishers; all of his work is still available.

The fifth -- and quite possibly the best of them, at least when writing about Africa -- was Alexander Lake. Strangely enough, none of his work is in print, a situation that will be corrected with the publication of this edition of _Killers In Africa_.

Lake was a big game hunter, but a hunter with a difference. At a time -- the late 1940s and early 1950s -- when one hunter after another was selling macho yarns filled to overflowing with false bravado, Lake began debunking all the myths that had been making the rounds. Indeed, when _Killers In Africa_ was compiled and published, the advertising catch-phrase was "The truth about animals lying in wait and hunters lying in print!"

It wasn't so far from wrong, either. Perhaps the most famous lions in history are the notorious Man-Eaters of Tsavo. Lt.-Col. J. H. Patterson made a literary career out of recounting his adventures with the beasts. It takes Lake less than half of the first chapter of this book to point out every single thing Patterson did wrong, and to point out what he _should_ have done had he any understanding of African lions, which he admittedly lacked.

Lake himself knew Africa intimately. He hunted early enough so that he was not confined to just one country but indeed covered the entire continent, and his clientele was more colorful and memorable than any of the animals he hunted -- one of the reasons why his books were so popular when they came out 40 years ago. He knew that people are more interesting than any animals, even man-eaters.

He was one of the first to suggest that there's nothing lower on the scale of humanity than a man who would kill a gorilla. He was the first to point out that, far from having to shoot a rhino when it charges, it's just as easy to dance aside, since once it lowers its head it's virtually blind. He remains the only hunter who argues that hunting antelope is more difficult and more satisfying than hunting the Big Five.

Not much is known of Lake's life, compared to Selous or Karamojo Bell or some of the more famous hunters. We do know that he was born in Chicago on July 29, 1893, the oldest son of a methodist minister, and that he went with his family to South Africa in 1908, where his father was not only a missionary but also performed extremely dangerous work for the British Parliament in matters pertaining to slave labor conditions in the Belgian Congo.

He attended the Marist Brothers College in Johannesburg, where he was the captain of the rifle team that represented the Transvaal in the All-British Empire Shumaker Cup. He set a record of 10 bull's-eyes in 11 seconds, which brought him to the attention of Nicobar Jones, one of the earliest licensed guides in Africa and one of the Dark Continent's most capable hunters. Jones hired him as a meat hunter when he turned 18 years old, in 1911; his duties were to supply game to transport wagon trains which in turn supplied mines and railroad builders in Portuguese East Africa, Northern Rhodesia, German Southwest African Tanganyika, Kenya and Uganda. He soon became an expert spoorer and hunter of all types of game, especially antelope.

Lake apprenticed under Jones, who taught him all the tricks of the trade, and eventually became a hunter in his own right, assisted by his unsurpassed Zulu tracker, Ubusuku. He refused to be associated with any of the groups of professional hunters that had begun organizing in Kenya and Tanganyika. He was bitterly opposed to "rocking chair safaris" that took tourist hunters to the game, approached the animals by truck, and permitted the so- called hunters to fire in perfect safety. He also did what he could to stop the elephant poaching in Tanganyika, but without much success.

He became fascinated with animals' habits and temperaments, and studied them both as a hunter and a naturalist. His numerous articles were published in the _Rand Daily Mail_ and the _London Daily Mail_. He also wrote extensively about the various tribes he encountered, and these writings were incorporated in his father's reports to the British.

When World War I came along, he left Africa to join the American forces in Europe as a pilot, engaging in numerous dogfights above the battlefields. Then it was back to Africa, where he guided hunting parties from all over the world.

He returned to the United States in the 1920s and put his writing experience to good use, hiring on as a reporter and later an editor with the _Spokane Chronicle_, the _Seattle Star_, the _Vancouver World_, and the _San Francisco Examiner_.

Still in love with Africa, Lake returned there during the latter half of the 1930s, then came back to the States, moving to the Mojave Desert where he set up shop as a writer. His African reminiscences never appeared in the "hairy-chested" men's magazines that reveled in close calls and animal body counts, but rather in _Field and Stream_ and _Argosy_ and a handful of other magazines that would, with his help, bring big-game hunting kicking and screaming into the second half of the 20th Century. As his fame increased, he also started selling to such major markets as _Look_, _Colliers_, and _Reader's Digest_.

This book, obviously pieced together from a number of his magazine articles, covers the animals he hunted, species by species. Each chapter has the feel of a reminiscence told round a campfire, while clearing the dust from your throat with some brandy after a hard day's foot-slogging after animals who were too elusive, or too small, or just too damned pretty, to shoot. And whatever you think of big game hunting (and remember, this was written four decades ago, when attitudes were different -- although even then, Lake's favorite clients were those "who know what trophies they want, bag them, and do no other killing except for food"), I think you'll find it almost impossible not to like Lake himself and wish that you could have met him long enough to hear him recount some of his favorite stories.

_Killers in Africa_ appeared in 1953, and immediately made the bestseller list. A year later, Lake produced a second book, also a composite of his articles. Alternately titled _Hunter's Choice_ (the American version) or _African Adventure_ (the British version), it's a delightful hodge-podge that covers everything from solving a murder in the Belgian Congo, to getting a pack of apes drunk in order to capture them, to a long and fascinating chapter about how to cook in the bush -- everything from roasting impala steaks to making ostrich egg omelets to smoking hippo hams -- all told in the same friendly, informal, across-the-campfire style as this book. (In fact, if this book is at all successful, we'll be bringing you _Hunter's Choice_ within a year.)

Lake's expertise even brought him work as a writer and consultant for Sol Lesser, producer of the Tarzan movies. Continuing to write from his oceanside home, his final years were devoted to extensive research on his father's missionary work, which led him to write two more bestsellers, _Your Prayers Are Always Answered_ and _You Need Never Walk Alone_. He died on Christmas Day, 1961, while working on _The Axe and the Cross_, a biography of his father, Dr. John G. Lake.

I don't know how many other readers Lake influenced, but he was certainly the one who got me interested in Africa when I was just a boy. I've been visiting it (six non-hunting safaris thus far) and making a living off of it (13 books and 19 short stories -- and if you think it's easy to write that much _science fiction_ about Africa, give it a try sometime) ever since.

In my life, I have written three fan letters to writers whose work I deeply admired. One of them, science fiction writer Barry Malzberg, has become my closest friend and occasional collaborator. The second, mystery writer/humorist Ross Spencer, also became a good friend. The third was Alexander Lake, who died a month before my letter could reach him. I consider him a close friend whom I simply never had the good fortune to meet or correspond with, and I hope he would be pleased, if not with the books and stories he inspired, then at least with my bringing
_Killers In Africa_ back into print for a new generation to enjoy.

-- Mike Resnick