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Audiobook edition · 7 h 4 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Long rides, cold camps, and a grizzly’s strength: what does it take to follow the trail into the American West?
In Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches, Theodore Roosevelt draws on his years ranching in Dakota Territory and travelling into the Rocky Mountains. These outdoor sketches follow bears, bison, wolves, elk and deer. The chase means hours of tracking, hard ground, and the sudden moment when a hunter raises his rifle.
Roosevelt looks beyond the shot. He studies how animals live, how wolves hunt in packs, and what makes a grizzly dangerous without making it a monster. Alongside the adventure runs a question about the land itself: what becomes of wild country when the great bison herds are gone?
What you’ll discover
- The grizzly up close Meet the Rocky Mountain bear through its size, strength, and odd habits.
- The craft of tracking Follow hunts on horseback, on foot through broken country, and with hounds.
- Life across the plains Watch Roosevelt turn from the chase to the habits of wolves, elk, and deer.
- A frontier slipping away Consider the fate of the plains through Roosevelt’s account of the vanished bison herds.
- Adventure with an observant eye Move between long rides, cold camps, and clear observations of animal behavior.
Who will love it
Readers who love true tales of the American West, wildlife, horses and hounds, and the voices of cowboys and old trappers, will find a lively outdoor book full of scenes and characters.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The great buffalo herds vanish in fifteen years
- A boy hunter learns the plains on the Brazos
- Stalking, stampedes and charges teach respect
- A hunter finds the last mountain bison
- The black bear is shy and widespread
- Old Ephraim is a bear of many names
- Hunting the grizzly takes skill and steady nerve
- Cougar and peccary test the hunter's patience
- Hounds, horses and wolves show skill in partnership
- Cowboy land is rough, funny and sometimes grim
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Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches
by Theodore Roosevelt · 1902
Roosevelt tracks a grizzly through fresh snow while the last great buffalo herds fade from the plains.
Challenging5–10 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
What does it take to crawl a quarter mile on your belly through cactus toward a herd of buffalo? Theodore Roosevelt opens this book with the buffalo's lost range, then follows his teenage brother Elliott on a Texas hunt in 1877.
Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 5 min3 h 15 min fast, 4 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 58,000 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1902by Theodore Roosevelt
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The great buffalo herds vanish in fifteen years
Roosevelt begins with a fact that frames the whole book. In 1776 buffalo ranged as far east as the mountains behind Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas. By 1800 they had been pushed west of the Mississippi, and for roughly eighty years they filled the great plains.
What ended them was the railways and the hide hunters. After the Civil War, transcontinental lines gave hunters cheap transport, and hides were in great demand. Several million buffalo died. The Union Pacific line split the survivors into two groups. The southern herds were destroyed around 1878, and the northern ones by 1883.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1902
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 35 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Roosevelt, Theodore. Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/hunting-the-grisly-and-other-sketches.
Roosevelt, T. (2026). Hunting the grisly and other sketches. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/hunting-the-grisly-and-other-sketches (Original work published 1902)
Roosevelt, Theodore. Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/hunting-the-grisly-and-other-sketches.
@book{roosevelt2026hunting,
author = {Roosevelt, Theodore},
title = {Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/hunting-the-grisly-and-other-sketches},
note = {First published 1902}
}
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What is Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches about?
It is Theodore Roosevelt's collection of hunting and frontier sketches. It covers buffalo, black bears, grizzlies, cougars, peccaries and wolves, along with hound and horse sports, and finishes with stories of cowboys, trappers and soldiers in the West.
Is Hunting the Grisly a true story?
Yes, it is nonfiction, written by Roosevelt in the early 1890s from his own hunts and from accounts by friends and frontier hunters. He marks some tales as hearsay and warns readers to weigh old campfire stories.
Why does Roosevelt call the grizzly Old Ephraim?
Old Ephraim is a nickname used by old mountain trappers. Roosevelt also mentions Moccasin Joe, which refers to the bear's tracks, which look like the footprints of a huge man in moccasins.
The author
Theodore Roosevelt
1858–1919 · American president and historian
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) was born in New York City and died at Oyster Bay, New York. He served as the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He wrote books about history, hunting, and his life, including Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter (1905) and his autobiography (1913).
More by Theodore Roosevelt
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