Bring ’Em Back Alive: The Best of Frank Buck

by Frank Buck, Steven Lehrer (Editor)

“Picture a cross between Clark Gable and that excitable Australian fellow who frolics with alligators on cable TV, and you get something of a picture of Frank Buck.” —San Antonio Express-News. “Fans remember [Buck] as a devoted conservationist—Buck fretted often about the survival of rare species—and intrepid adventurer, whose deeds in Sumatra, Borneo, India and the Philippines wowed folks at home.” —Newsday. “Good, old-fashioned, movie-serial-type adventures in wild, exotic settings.” —Dallas Morning News. “All in all, this is an extremely entertaining book, illustrating a different time and written in a way that brings that time to life.” —Choice. “That this hardy Texan’s celebrity was earned is made evident in a new version of Bring ‘Em Back Alive, . . . a compilation of exciting and often chilling first-person adventures.” —East Texas Historical Association Journal. Frank Buck spent his life capturing alive every kind of animal, from birds to snakes to elephants. The intrepid Texas animal collector and jungle adventurer enthralled generations of readers and moviegoers with the stories of danger and daring collected here.

Genres: Memoir, Biography

270 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

About the author

Frank Howard Buck (March 17, 1884 – March 25, 1950) was an American hunter, animal collector, and author, as well as a film actor, director, and producer. Beginning in the 1910s he made many expeditions into Asia for the purpose of hunting and collecting exotic animals, bringing over 100,000 live specimens back to the United States and elsewhere for zoos and circuses and earning a reputation as an adventurer. He co-authored seven books chronicling or based on his expeditions, beginning with 1930's Bring 'Em Back Alive, which became a bestseller. Between 1932 and 1943 he starred in seven adventure films based on his exploits, most of which featured staged "fights to the death" with various wild beasts. He was also briefly a director of the San Diego Zoo, displayed wild animals at the 1933–34 Century of Progress exhibition and 1939 New York World's Fair, toured with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and co-authored an autobiography, 1941's All in a Lifetime. The Frank Buck Zoo in Buck's hometown of Gainesville, Texas is named after him.

Reviews

[Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not that this book is a literary landmark, but it's the rich and interesting life of Frank Buck that makes this book a classic. The story of a man who supplied many of the animals that inhabit zoos in America today is a collection of his most fascinating tales - Indian princes hosting tiger fights, Leopards getting loose on a ship, Man-eating Tigers, and capturing King Cobras with his bare hands are just the beginning. Through it all, he tells each story with wit and details that produce a real hero in his time.

Today his efforts would probably place him behind bars or at least as No. 1 on PETA's Villain List, but let us not forget that without his efforts, animal lovers today would never have been able to appreciate the beauty of the creatures they fight to protect.

[1.1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book Frank Buck, a nearly forgotten prototype for Steve Irwin, tells a series of vignettes from the early 20th century in which he trapped, tracked, and traded in animals. These deeply interesting stories and discuss some very iconic animals, from man-eating tigers and battling elephants to deadly pythons and drunk orangutans—all of which he sold into the zoo business as well as to collectors and entertainers.

Maybe you don't like the the animal trade, but in Frank Buck's time most of these animals were not as critically endangered, and also people had less fastidious attitudes to animals. A wealth of knowledge is displayed, and Frank often expresses sympathy for the beasts he works with as well as pretty deep knowledge.

His discussions of the various people around him may have turned off readers in other editions, but the editor in this case has taken egregious language out in order to make it more palatable to modern readers. So that problem isn't present (at least not as overtly) in this edition, that said Frank Buck seems like he'd be an artifact of the time, as he was too busy kidnapping animals and hustling them for profit to be respectful of the locals he didn't work with.

Still and all: this is really cool book. It's enjoyable and I can't say I've ever read anything quite like it before. If there's a solid biography of Frank Buck, I'd love to find a copy, and I could go for some more stories of his exploits.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 1 out of 5]

It wasn’t that much fun to read and it wasn’t adventurous enough. At least for me, which was what I was expecting. Maybe it would be better to watch how he caught each animal than to read it.

Also.. Animals are not Pokémon bro.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highlights in the career of an American animal collector based out of Singapore in the 1930s. Buck is as much a showman as a 'hunter' of live animals for export back to the States, evident from the colorful and action-packed narrative style. Unfortunate that his other books are out of print.