Memories From the Field-Diary of a University Professor's Hunting Trips

“In the fields of specialized literature, books on nature and on hunting are very popular. Since the dawn of time, a man capable of putting on paper his observations have left to posterity a wealth of information. Some have written in an objective fashion their adventures, while others have colored their stories with poetic language which without changing the adventure made the reading more gentle and attractive. One of them is Filippo Maria Toscano, a prolific, poetic writer and a hunter in his own right. Born in Sicily, most of his ideals and ideas are based on his formative years, when the local Christian Democratic Party fashioned his principles of personal and corporate freedom in the citizenry.

“On the subject of hunting, very few people know that the roots of this sport go back to ancient time. The Greeks and Romans were fascinated by nature and the challenge of hunting; as refined writers and observers, they recorded for posterity what they saw and studied. Sometimes, the noble and old chronicler was influenced by contemporary superstition and added to his objective recording a touch of fantasy. Pliny’s Naturalis Historia described an environmental reach of life and its effects on the people. Whatever the personal style of the writer, the final objective was a book rich in adventure, details on hunting, and at the end a historical document.

“People of all nations have, throughout the ages, linked nature with is inhabitants, and from there to hunting, first as a means to obtain food, and later when that need was no longer present, as a sport. This was frequently seen as a virile ingredient for any man worthy of respect.

“With the same devotion, the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset wrote a book. With the same spirit, Dr. Toscano addresses nature as he saw it, the sport of hunting and its morality without making any excuses, but simply telling it like it is. And the truth that he tells us is the one of a man waiting in an ambush twenty feet from the ground, bored to death, and much more interested in observing the landscape at dawn than in really looking game to kill ...” – (from the Preface) Professor Edward Jackson, Delaware State University

Preface by Edward Jackson
Acknowledgements, Foreword
I. First Hunt
II. In the Swamps of Yucatan
III. The Missing Bear
IV. Finally the Bear
North Carolina Revisited
VI. In the Hills of Eastern Sicily
VII. Baptism by Blood
VIII. A Pheasant is also a Chicken
IX. Dove’s Day in Delaware
X. The Gallant Goose
XI. Mors Tua Vita Mea
Appendix: My Choice for Selecting a Rifle