Robert Ruark (December 29, 1915 in Wilmington, North Carolina – July 1, 1965 in London, England) was an American author, syndicated columnist, and big game hunter. Early life Born Robert Chester Ruark, Jr., to Charlotte A. Ruark and Robert C. Ruark, a bookkeeper for a wholesale grocery, young Ruark grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina. His brother, David, was adopted, and little is known about him. The Ruark family was deeply affected by the Depression, but still managed to send Robert to college. He graduated early from New Hanover High School, and enrolled in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at age 15. His studies included a few journalism classes but did not gain a degree. Early career In the 1930s, Ruark was fired from an accounting job in the Works Progress Administration, and did a hitch in the United States Merchant Marine. He worked for two small town newspapers in North Carolina: the Hamlet News Messenger and, later, the Sanford Herald. In 1936, Ruark moved to Washington, D.C., and was hired as a copy boy for The Washington Daily News, a Scripps-Howard newspaper. In just a few months he was the paper's top sports reporter. During World War II, Ruark was commissioned an ensign in the United States Navy, and served ten months as a gunnery officer on Atlantic and Mediterranean convoys. Marriage In 1938, Ruark married Virginia Webb, an interior designer from an upper-middle-class family in the Washington, D.C., area, and a graduate of Georgetown University. They divorced in 1963, and had no children. Virginia Webb-Ruark died in 1966. Writing career Upon his return to Washington, Ruark joined the Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance. As his obituary in The New York Times stated, Ruark was "sometimes glad, sometimes sad, and often mad — but almost always provocative." Some of his columns were eventually collected into two books, I Didn't Know It Was Loaded (1948) and One for the Road (1949). As he became recognized, Ruark began to write fiction, first for literary magazines, and then his first novel, Grenadine Etching, in 1947. The novel parodied the popular historical romances of the time and set the stage for his many humorous novels and articles published in the Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, and other popular publications. African safari After enjoying some success as a writer, Ruark decided that it was time to fulfill a lifelong dream to go on safari