Wild Cargo (book)

Wild Cargo

first edition cover (1932)
Author	Frank Buck Edward Anthony
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	non-fiction
Publisher	Simon and Schuster
Publication date	1932
Media type	Print (Hardback)
Pages	244
Preceded by	Bring 'Em Back Alive
Followed by	Fang and Claw

Frank Buck (right) and Edward Anthony with their book Wild Cargo ca 1932.

Wild Cargo was Frank Buck’s second book, a best seller. Buck continued his tales of his adventures capturing exotic animals.^[1] Writing with Edward Anthony, Buck related many of his experiences working with jungle creatures.

Chapters

Buck was a keen observer and student of animal psychology and includes occasional bits of shocking realism, for example in "Killer of Killers" he relates the story of a man-eating tiger that could be trapped by only one kind of bait: human flesh. In "Coiled Lightning" he describes an encounter with a hungry python. In "Spitting Cobra" he tells of a painful meeting with one of the most unpleasant snakes in the world. In "The Patsy" Buck tells the story of a young female elephant who had nothing but bad luck; in "Black Fury" of a leopard who escaped from his cage on shipboard; and in "Terrible Tusks" of a tremendous conflict, witnessed by his native assistant, between two bull elephants contending for the mastery of a herd of females. "A Bear In Time" is the story of a destructive honey bear that Buck used to rid himself of a bore, who had threatened to move into his house. “Animal Magic” describes native medicines: tigers' gall bladders, hairs from elephants' tails and leopards' shoulder bones. “Striped Demon,” the final chapter, is the thrilling story of an attack on Buck by a tiger he is trying to film.

Critical reception

"Enough legitimate action and suspense to make a dozen average jungle motion picture films" ^[2]

References