FIRST EDITION, SECOND IMPRESSION, 1962, HAMISH HAMILTON, HARDCOVER, INDEX, 528 PAGES, CONDITION; AS NEW.
Robert Ruark (1915 1965) was an American author, syndicated columnist, and big game hunter.
Uhuru, was published in 1962. "Uhuru" is the Swahili word for freedom. The book apparently libeled a particular politician in Kenya, and while Ruark was in Nairobi after its publication, staying at the New Stanley Hotel, he learned that a law suit had been filed against him by this politician. Before he could be served papers, however, he was tipped off, and he fled overnight to South Africa by air. He had intended to write a final book in the series with the working title of "A Long View From a Tall Hill," but this never materialized.
Sometimes belittled as the poor mans Hemingway, Ruark has nevertheless retained a loyal following among fans of nature writing. Bland Simpson wrote that he produced some of the best portraiture in words of hunting, fishing and life in the field that we have.
"I have worked with the British, South Africans. Arabs, and Africans and I find the book extremely accurate as the turmoil,prejudice and sense of superority by the British, South Africans and Arabs was enough to cause any uprising. The Kenyans fought with a primitive zeal, knowing that this was the only way to stop colonial rule. When I was in Bahrain in the early 70's The British still felt that they ruled. Ruark although sounding prejudice in his books is merely stating what he saw and felt at the times,unless you've been there you read his books as pure fantasy, but to know the people and the countries is to see his fiction as a sign of the times. Today we like to rewrite our novels and our history to try and show we were just misguided; but we are human, with human bias, haterd and greed, these things did happen in the World not just Africa. It is time we acknowledge these faults and stop editing and rewriting books because we don't like what is said or what someone is called. Ruark is a man of his time a very troubled man, a brilliant man and a man who has been lost to the techinal world."
