Old outdoor magazine: Our outdoor legacy

It’s difficult to know where we are going unless we know where we have been, and looking through old outdoor magazines is a pleasant way to spend free time. If you are like me, and are a hopeless romantic when it comes to all things related to fishing, hunting and reading about these pastimes, perhaps this is a good time and a wonderful way to gain a greater understanding of our outdoor heritage.

Careful storage of Ben East’s valuable magazine collection

I have carefully stored those old outdoor magazines (as many as 802) and other historical files, in a temperature and humidity controlled, smoke-free environment for 20 years. Now, after reading and studying them, it’s come time to part with 802 magazines from various publications. Storage space has become very limited, and this calls for a drastic but necessary decision to let some of these scarce magazines go to collectors and lovers of fine sporting art.

Why collect old outdoor magazines? Frankly, the front cover illustrations on older magazines were graced by full-color drawings by leading wildlife artists of that era, and they have become very collectible. These color cover drawings had the power to inspire a reader, to make them dream of a fishing or hunting trip that would be the capstone event of their sporting lives.

These drawings evoke a sense of the wilderness and of wild places and things. The artists could capture some of what today’’s photo-illustrated covers cannot. I get goose bumps looking at those old covers, and as a kid of 12 years, my twin brother George and I had our own subscriptions to Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and Sports Afield, the Big 3 outdoor magazines of that earlier era. We greeted each magazine arrival with great anticipation, and read the articles from beginning to end, cover to cover.

Learning about our outdoor heritage

We immersed ourselves in the outdoor literature at a time when outdoor writing only meant writing about fishing, conservation issues and hunting. They were my link to the past, to another era when the outdoors only meant the consumptive sports of fishing and hunting. These were not spectator sports, but were participant sports where what you caught or killed was eaten.

What these magazine covers did, and something current outdoor magazines can’t do, is show human emotions. The drawings could be funny, gritty, raw or tug at your heart strings. One could see dejection, happiness, sadness, or it may portray a funny scene. Each cover had an emotional element that was readily apparent when seen, and the covers depicted things that readers could relate to.

Those stories, and particularly the color covers and inside b/w and color art, were the stuff of excitement. The writers wrote Me and Joe stories where people went fishing and hunting, and the reader was welcome to come along for the literary ride. We shared vicariously in the writers’ defeats and successes, and felt as if we were right at their elbow as they made the final stalk on a big ram or caught a heavyweight bass.

We traveled to far-off countries, hunted lions and tigers with Jack O’Connor and other firearm writers, and came away with wild and vivid experiences. Those stories carried us off to one adventure after another.

Meet some of the legendary magazine writers

Those were not the days of the how-to story. Instead, those writers knew how to capture the imagination and the thrill of an outdoor experience and weave it into a great read. Many of those writers were legends in their own time. Men such as:

Russell Annabel	Charles Askins	Havilah Babcock	Erwin Bauer	Vereen Bell	Ray Bergman
Joe Brooks	Nash Buckingham	Chester Chatfield	Bert Claflin	Eugene Connett	Paul Curtis
Byron Dalrymple	Henry P. Davis	Ben East	Charles Elliott	Corey Ford	Arnold Gingrich
Hugh Grey	Sparse Grey Hackle	Roderick Haig-Brown	Van Campen Heilner	Ray Holland	Cal Johnson
Elmer Keith	John Alden Knight	Claude Kreider	Robert Page Lincoln	Jason Lucas	Art Macdougall
Gordon MacQuarrie	Jack O’Connor	Ozark Ripley	Ben Robinson	Robert Ruark	Andy Russell
Archibald Rutledge	H. P. Sheldon	Fred Streever	Edwin Ware Smith	Burton Spiller	Tap Tapply
Harold Titus	Ted Trueblood	Townsend Whelen	Frank Woolner	Lee Wulff	Ed Zern

and many others held our minds captive in their hands as we read along and enjoyed every moment of every story.

Meet and treasure the outdoor illustrations of these legendary artists

However, as great as these writers were, it was the artists who drew the color cover illustrations that took our mind away from other things and captivated us with the artistic mastery of their drawings. There were artists named

Robert Doares	Charles Dye	William Harnden Foster	Arthur Fuller	Howard Haskell Hinton	John Newton Howitt
Lynn Bogue Hunt	Francis Lee Jaques	Marguerite Kirmse	J. F. Kernan	Bob Kuhn	Harry Livingston
Edwin Megargee	Harold Megargee	Wiley Miller	P. B. Parsons	William Schaldach	G. Tyng
Walter Wilwerding	Edgar Wittmack

and many others.

Here’s the deal

A total of 802 of these magazines will be offered for sale but there are far too many to list here. If you are interested in some great old outdoor magazines from Ben East’s personal collections, send a personal check for $10 with the word magazines in the subject line, and I’ll send the complete list which notes the magazine name, date of publication, a listing of some of the authors in that issue, and notes on the artist and topic of that particular cover.

Your $10 fee will be refunded from the cost of the first purchase of $50. Orders of $50 or more will be shipped free. I can send scans of the covers but please limit your choices to three scans per order.

Various magazines being offered

Magazines include

• Boy’s Chum
• Field & Stream
• Fishing Facts
• Fishing & Hunting Guide
• Forest & Stream
• Fur-Fish-Game
• Great Lakes Fisherman
• Hunting & Fishing
• Hunter Trader Trapper
• Michigan Sportsman
• National Geograpic (only one)
• National Sportsman
• Outdoor Life

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors