Old Man’s Boy Grows Up

Robert Ruark

Mar 2016 · Pickle Partners Publishing

About this ebook

The year 1957 marked the publication of Robert Ruark’s best seller, The Old Man and the Boy, a tale of “infinite warmth and wisdom, love and understanding “ It told of the Boy, Ruark himself, and the Old Man, his grandfather, as they roamed the North Carolina outdoors together, savoring the sights, sounds, and smells of the earth. As they explored the woods and fished the streams, the Old Man talked and the Boy listened. And as he listened, the Boy learned.

The Old Man is now gone from the earth, but not from the memory of the Boy. In the pages of the present book, THE OLD MAN’S BOY GROWS OLDER, the Boy has grown up to new adventures, to college, to a seaman’s berth on a North Atlantic freighter, to African safaris, and treks to the world’s far corners—and to other dogs and boys who now follow him. But the Old Man is still there. He is there in anecdotal memories awakened by the sight of a tiger in Africa, a dog in Spain, or by the tantalizing smell of a hearty meal prepared over an outdoor fire. The echoes of the Old Man’s patient instruction, his gentle humor, and his warm companionship are here again, guiding the Boy as he meets his adult problems and adventures.

Today Robert Ruark is world famous as a newspaper columnist and author, big-game hunter and world traveler. His eight books, ranging from the hilarious Grenadine Etching to the realism of his best-selling novels, Something of Value and Poor No More, have won him a wide and faithful audience. Those who are already familiar with the “outdoor Ruark” will again find a wealth of entertaining and instructive lore, a poetic and nostalgic reliving of the seasons on these pages. Those readers, young and old, who have not yet looked into this corner of Ruark’s world are new in for a delightful discovery.

Ratings and reviews

Our Dad turned my two brothers and me onto a softback copy of this when I was around seven or eight.My brothers were two and four years older than me. I seem to remember that the book finally fell apart from use the year I graduated High school.1986.I read About the Old Man and the boy almost certainly 5 or 600 times.Absolutely one of the greatest books ever written. If you happen to be looking for the next greatest story similar to this,I highly recommend Ferral Sam's "A river runs through it". outstandi

First read the book while in the Navy in the 80's. Fell in love with his writings and plundered every used bookstore I could find looking for anything else written by Ruark. If you grew up hunting and fishing in the South you'll find a wonderful trip back in time to a simpler existence.

About the author

ROBERT RUARK (1915-1965) was an American author, syndicated columnist, and "big game" hunter. He grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina and graduated early from high school, enrolling at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at age 15.

Ruark began his writing career in the mid-1930s, first working for two small town newspapers in North Carolina and then moved to Washington, D.C. in 1936, where he was hired as copy boy for The Washington Daily News and worked his way up to become the paper’s top sports reporter in just a few months.

During World War II, Ruark was commissioned an ensign in the United States Navy, and served ten months as a gunnery officer on Atlantic and Mediterranean convoys. After the war, he returned to Washington and joined the Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance. Some of his columns were collected into two books, I Didn’t Know It Was Loaded (1948) and One for the Road (1949). As he became recognized, he began to write fiction.