The Leopard Woman

White's books were popular at a time when America was losing its vanishing wilderness. He was a keen observer of the beauties of nature and human nature yet could render them in a plain-spoken style. Based on his own experience whether writing camping journals or Westerns he included pithy and fun details about cabin-building canoeing logging gold-hunting and guns and fishing and hunting. He also interviewed people who had been involved in the fur trade the California Gold Rush and other pioneers which provided him with details that give his novels verisimilitude. He salted in humor and sympathy for colorful characters such as canny Indian guides and greenhorn campers who carried too much gear. Theodore Roosevelt wrote that White was the best man with both pistol and rifle who ever shot at Roosevelt's rifle range at Sagamore Hill. THE LEOPARD WOMAN is set in Africa.