TIGRERO! By Sasha Siemel.

(1953) 2017 Safari Press reprint. 8vo (158 x 238mm). Pp300. Colour and b/w photographs, b/w chapter-heading vignettes end-paper maps. Maroon faux leather boards, spine titled in gilt.

Siemel hunted jaguars with a spear in the jungles of the Matto Grosso of Brazil. He was with Julian Duguid on the "Green Hell" expedition, following the route of the Conquistadores from the Upper Paraguay River to the Andes. "Sasha Siemel was a figure of monumental importance on the American hunting-world stage of the 1930s, '40s, '50s, and '60s. He was unique not only as a hunter but also as a man. He is the only known white man to have fought the fierce jungle jaguars of Brazil with a spear, and as a man, he made a stand for decency in everything he did. This was a man who believed in the ideals of freedom, adventure, honor, family, home, and courage-ideals he upheld throughout his life." Born and brought up in Latvia, Siemel travelled to Chicago at the age of sixteen before moving to Argentina to be with family. "Once in South America he found a job as a mechanic, but he was soon drawn to the vast wilderness of the Mato Grosso. His dream was to become a jaguar hunter in the endless grasslands and marshes of the Pantanal, where big game flourished and where courteous Brazilian ranchers pursued rugged lives."