Author and Title:
Wolhuter (Harry)-MEMORIES OF A GAME-RANGER
Collation:
Sixth Edition: 313 pages (plus preliminary leaves), monochrome frontispiece portrait of the author, title page with vignette drawing by Mrs. Stevenson-Hamilton, illustrated throughout with black-and-white line drawings in the text by C. T. Astley-Maberly. Publisher’s original green cloth boards with gilt title and lion vignette to the upper board, gilt title, author, and antelope head motif to the spine. Lacking the dust jacket. Signed by the author in blue ink beneath the frontispiece portrait and dated 1960. A second contemporary blue-ink gift inscription in Afrikaans, dated 18/9/1960, appears on a preliminary leaf, reading approximately: "Van Oupa Coetzee aan Willie".
Condition:
A good copy. The green cloth boards remain clean and fairly bright with crisp gilt lettering and pictorial blocking. There is a darker patch or slight mark and a few small specks on the rear board, slight fraying to the cloth at the head and tail of the spine, and light bumping to the corners. The text block edges are toned. Internally, the binding is tight. Light foxing and brown spotting are present on the leaf preceding the edition page, concentrated toward the upper margin. The text pages are evenly toned with a slightly rippled fore-edge, though the text and illustrations remain clean.
Notes:
Henry Christoffel "Harry" Wolhuter (1877–1964) was one of the first game rangers appointed to the Sabie Game Reserve—later the Kruger National Park—serving under Warden Major James Stevenson-Hamilton from 1902 until his retirement in 1946. Prior to his conservation career, Wolhuter served with the irregular unit Steinaecker’s Horse during the Anglo-Boer War. His memoir, first published in 1948, became a foundational classic of South African wildlife and conservation literature, chronicling the untamed Lowveld, early anti-poaching patrols, and the transition from big-game hunting to wildlife preservation.
Henry Christoffel "Harry" Wolhuter (1877–1964) was one of the first game rangers appointed to the Sabie Game Reserve—later the Kruger National Park—serving under Warden Major James Stevenson-Hamilton from 1902 until his retirement in 1946. Prior to his conservation career, Wolhuter served with the irregular unit Steinaecker’s Horse during the Anglo-Boer War. His memoir, first published in 1948, became a foundational classic of South African wildlife and conservation literature, chronicling the untamed Lowveld, early anti-poaching patrols, and the transition from big-game hunting to wildlife preservation.
The book is most famous for Wolhuter's harrowing 1903 encounter along the Lindanda road, in which he was knocked from his horse and dragged by a male lion, surviving by stabbing the animal in the heart and throat with his sheath knife before climbing a tree. Both the sheath knife and the lion’s skin remain on permanent display at the Stevenson-Hamilton Memorial Library in Skukuza.
References:
- Extracted from Stevenson-Hamilton (James), South African Eden: From Sabi Game Reserve to Kruger National Park (Cassell & Co., London, 1937), pages 54–56: "Wolhuter was one of the original rangers appointed in 1902, taking charge of the Pretoriuskop section. His extraordinary escape from a lion in August 1903, when he killed his assailant single-handed with a sheath knife while being dragged through the bush, has become one of the most celebrated incidents in the history of the reserve."
- Extracted from Bulpin (T. V.), The Ivory Trail (Howard B. Timmins, Cape Town, 1954), pages 112–115, detailing Wolhuter’s service with Steinaecker’s Horse and his early friendships with Lowveld hunters and rangers.
- Biographical details cross-referenced via Kruger National Park History - Harry Wolhuter and Legends and Legacies of Conservation in Africa.
Size:
8vo (approx. 245 x 165 mm)
8vo (approx. 245 x 165 mm)
Imprint:
Johannesburg, The Wild Life Protection Society of South Africa, 1958
Johannesburg, The Wild Life Protection Society of South Africa, 1958
- Size: 8vo (approx. 245 x 165 mm)
