JACK O'CONNOR

The Legendary Life of America's Greatest Gunwriter

by Robert Anderson

Jack O’Connor was the preeminent North American big-game hunter and gunwriter of the twentieth century, and Robert Anderson’s masterfully written new work is a blockbuster filled with fascinating facts and stories about this controversial character. With the full cooperation of the O’Connor children, Anderson spent three years interviewing O’Connor’s family and friends as well as delving into JOC’s papers, photos, and letters, including the extensive correspondence between O’Connor and Bob Householder, and the O’Connor papers from Washington State University. Buck Buckner, O’Connor’s lifelong friend, has contributed two chapters on his experiences with the master of North American hunting. Find out how many (desert) sheep and Grand Slams JOC really killed; how JOC shot the same sable antelope twice (10 years apart!); how his absentmindedness made him lose his car; and how he shot off his own toe. Learn about the early years of hardship in Arizona for the O’Connor family and the tragedy that befell Jerry, their oldest son. Then there were the glory years after WWII as O’Connor undeniably rose to the top of his profession, when he and Eleanor hunted tiger in India, sheep in Iran, buffalo in Tanganyika, and became acquainted with princes and potentates as well as the moguls of the hunting and firearms industries. His stories in Outdoor Life could make or break a product and moved thousands of readers to book a hunt or buy a gun. This exciting biography is illustrated with dozens of never-before-seen photos made available by the family, and it includes an extensive timeline that lists the major game animals O’Connor shot, the guns he owned, the trips he took, and the books he wrote. The life of JOC is a book on a hunter for hunters by a hunter, and is a must for anyone interested in one of the most famous gunwriters of all time.