author
Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell
1880–1954
An adventurer who turned a life of hard travel into vivid hunting memoirs, he wrote with the calm, practical voice of someone who had truly been there. His books combine danger, observation, and a restless taste for the wild places of the early 20th century.
1 Audiobook
The Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter
by Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell
About the author
Born in Scotland in 1880, Walter Dalrymple Maitland Bell became widely known as "Karamojo" Bell after his travels in the Karamoja region of East Africa. He was a hunter, traveler, soldier, pilot, sailor, painter, and writer, and that unusually varied life gave his nonfiction a strong sense of first-hand experience.
Bell is best remembered for books such as Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter, which drew on his years in Africa and helped make him a lasting figure in adventure writing. His work stands out for its direct, matter-of-fact style and for the way it records both the hardships of travel and his close attention to animals, landscapes, and technique.
Later in life, Bell also served in wartime and pursued sailing and painting, adding even more range to a career that already seemed larger than life. He died in 1954, but his memoirs still attract readers interested in exploration, fieldcraft, and the complicated history of big-game hunting.