There’s something about the deer-hunting experience, indefinable yet undeniable, which lends itself to the telling of exciting tales. The Greatest Deer Hunting Book Ever offers abundant examples of the manner in which the quest for whitetails extends beyond the field to the comfort of the fireside. It features 43 sagas ranging from exciting true-life hunts to wonderfully compelling works of fiction.
The book’s 465 pages showcase a stellar lineup of some of the greatest names in American sporting letters, including William Faulkner, Robert Ruark, Archibald Rutledge, Gene Hill, Jack O’Connor, Gordon MacQuarrie and many others.
As you read their works, you’ll chuckle, feel a catch in your throat or a tear in your eye, and venture vicariously afield with hunters who know how to take readers to the setting of their story. On these pages, the deer season is always open and the sport’s joys endlessly unfold
The Greatest Deer Hunting Book Ever is available in a hardcover Collector’s Edition $40 and a Deluxe Edition $70 limited to 350 numbered copies bound in leather and with gilded endsheets. Editor Jim Casada has signed both editions.
]]>The world of sporting literature has a new classic from one of the planet’s most widely traveled hunters. Call Time…The World of Wingshooting with the largest outdoor TV producer in history, is a book and film production more than 30 years in the making. Author and Executive Producer Chris Dorsey, along with a team of the world’s best sporting life photographers and cinematographers, embarked on expeditions to distant corners of the globe to create an indelible portrait of wingshooting.
Dorsey has spent the past 30 years investigating and chronicling the finest bird hunting destinations on the planet while producing nearly 60 outdoor adventure television series. In the process, his teams have amassed a library of more than 100,000 hours of HD footage and nearly 150,000 photographs, making Call Time (the book and companion film set) an unmatched celebration of the world of wingshooting.
The stunning, large-format book chronicles 18 different wingshooting adventures on four continents. Its chapters feature pheasant, bobwhite quail, ruffed grouse, woodcock, greywing francolin, ocellated turkey, spurfowl, sandgrouse, duck, goose, perdiz, dove and driven shoots for red-legged partridge, guineafowl, pheasants and grouse.
Internationally acclaimed photographers Dusan Smetana, Marcos Furer, Lee Kjos, Gary Kramer, John MacGillivray and many others spent thousands of hours in remote locations to capture a stunning collection of images that help make the 300-page opus an instant classic. Each chapter features a 10-minute corresponding film shot on location during the creation of Call Time.
“This has been a monumental team effort to produce an epic collection of wingshooting stories and imagery the likes of which has never before been created,” says Dorsey. “We set out a long time ago to bring together the world’s most talented team to create an enduring work.”
Dorsey’s productions—including Sporting Classics with Chris Dorsey airing on Outdoor Channel and in syndication on more than 120 stations coast to coast–are seen across the globe on a variety of networks. Some of those networks include ABC, Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic, HGTV, DIY, Travel Channel, ESPN, NBC Sports Network, Oxygen, WGN America, Outdoor Channel and other affiliates across Europe, Asia and South America.
Chris Dorsey is also the author of 12 books on outdoor and natural history subjects and his work has appeared in scores of sporting periodicals across the English speaking world as well as National Geographic, Forbes, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Robb Report and many others. He’s a member of the Outdoor Legends Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Ray Scott Trailblazer Award as well as the Curt Gowdy Memorial Award.
Call Time is available in two distinctive editions. The hardcover Collector’s Edition along with a companion DVD set (2.5 hours) sells for $75. The leather-bound Deluxe Edition, limited to 500 individually numbered books along with the companion DVD set, retails for $125.
]]>Renowned wildlife artist Sir John Seerey-Lester, “The Godfather of Wildlife Art,” is known for his immersive paintings paired with compelling and true stories that showcase the thrill and hardships that hunters and explorers face in the wild. Sporting Classics is honored to have published his Legends series: Legends of the Hunt (including the lion edition and the elephant edition) Legends of the Hunt Campfire Tales (including the leopard edition and the buffalo edition) and The Legendary Hunts of Theodore Roosevelt. The books in this series feature paintings and sketches from Sir John Seerey-Lester and the stories he spent the majority of his life researching, crafting and bringing to life.
Amid his fight against cancer, Sir John Seerey-Lester was working tirelessly on his final book of the Legends series, Legendary Hunters and Explorers, when he passed away in May of 2020. He is survived by his wife and fellow artist, Suzie Seerey-Lester, who carries his torch with vigor and pride. Suzie recently visited the Sporting Classics office to see the fruits of her beloved husband’s lifelong passion and labor finally in print and to sign her name on the project she completed in his honor.
Legendary Hunters and Explorers is the epitome of Sir John Seerey-Lester’s spirit and purpose – to encompass the allure of adventure and appreciation and respect for all things wild the best way he knew how, through his paintings and writings. Its pages relive the most compelling stories of 25 acclaimed hunters and explorers, including that of frontiersman Hugh Glass who was savagely attacked by a grizzly bear, the life-threatening Arctic research expeditions of John Torrington and Adolphus Greeley and other eminently fascinating characters, such as Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. All stories are complemented by more than 120 paintings of wildlife from around the world.
Just three weeks after his death, Suzie scrambled to save her husband’s lifework when the art studio succumbed to a flood. Overwhelmed, she gathered everything she could and retreated to the main house to finish the final book of the series in such a way that would honor her late husband’s aspirations. This was no simple task. What would John want? How would he do it? she wondered. Suzie spread paper writings and sketches across the floor, moving pieces around, playing with the order, which ended in frustration as she was discouraged it would not live up to her husband’s intentions. But she was struck with awe and peace when she reentered the studio days later to find John’s initial plans for the project matched perfectly with those she had done herself.
Amazing, yes, but not surprising once you learn of their love story. Suzie and John met when she was studying art in Guatemala. John led a small group of students through the forest before dawn to follow a herd of deer and study them in their natural habitat. Upon spotting the deer, the group heard a low growl, and realized they were standing between a jaguar and his breakfast. It is moments like these that inspired Sir John Seerey-Lester’s art, and Suzie’s mirrored passion led them to 25 years of a beautiful marriage and partnership.
Now over a year since his passing, Suzie walks the beaches of Florida in her efforts to protect sea turtles from predators and ensure their safety on their journey from shore to sea. On these walks, she is constantly finding small, smooth rocks, tumbled and worn down until shaped in the perfect heart. She found one in the exact place where she spread her husband’s ashes – a sure sign that he is with her every step of the way.
Finishing the final book in the iconic Legends series was Suzie’s way of “keeping the legend alive” – an endeavor she happily takes on and will continue to do so for the rest of her days.
]]>