Henry A. Snow's Hunting Big Game in Africa

Item Details

privately published, 1922, stapled wrappers

First Edition, VG

Commemorative booklet apparently issued as a memento of the 1922 silent film Hunting Big Game in Africa with Gun and Camera, produced by & starring the father & son team, H. A. Snow (1869-1927) & Sidney Snow (1898-1959). It documented their previous two-year excursion into the wilds of Africa to hunt & kill big game. The Foreword sings the praises & extols the bravery of the man who “fought his way…through the trackless tropic wastes & wrested, one by one, her blackest, most jealously guarded secrets from the savage breast of the Dark Continent.” Black-and-white photos document the slaying of leopards, elephants, oryx, gazelle, lions, zebra, rhinos, & greater koodoo, over whose corpses the hunters—and often their wives & children—proudly pose with their Winchester rifles, the weapon of choice on the hunt & in the film, praised for their “envious record in both America and Africa.’’ Other animals on the trip were captured & brought back to California for a zoo the Snows were planning, which they established by Lake Merritt upon their return; the animals were later moved to create the Oakland Zoo in 1934. Henry died in 1927, though son Sidney would go on to form the Alameda County Botanical & Zoological Society.

Privately published, n.d., c. 1922. Oblong small 4to (10” x 11”) in blue-gray wrappers embossed with a gilt elephant & lettering to front. Two-stapled binding. 24 pp. Intact tissue guard over Foreword & last page. Heavy sunning & light creasing/rubbing to extremities. Small (.75”) horizontal tear to upper fore edge side of front cover.

Quite scarce, with OCLC reporting just 1 copy of the film but no copies of the booklet.