Literature of American Big-Game Hunting 
the old traditions of the American stock on this 
continent, and have taken delight in the wild sports 
of the wilderness. 
Yet there have been fewer books written by 
Americans about life in the American wilderness 
and the chase of American big game than one 
would suppose,—or at least fewer books which are 
worth reading and preserving; for there does not 
exist a more dismal species of literature than the 
ordinary cheap sporting volume. This paucity of 
good books is, however, not unnatural. In a new 
country, where material needs are very pressing, 
the men who do the things are apt to be more 
numerous than those who can write well about 
them when done. This is as it should be. It isa 
good thing to write books, but it is a better thing 
still to do the deeds which are worth being written 
about. We ought to have both classes, and highest 
of all comes he who belongs to both; but if we had 
to choose between them, we would of course choose 
the doer rather than the writer. 
Nevertheless the writer’s position is very im- 
portant; and there is no delusion more hopeless 
than the belief of many excellent people to the 
effect that the man who has done most is necessa- 
rily he who can write best. The best books are 
those written by the rare men who, having actually 
done the things, are also capable of writing well 
about them when done. It is as true of hunting- 
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