White Hunter, Black Heart

By Peter Viertel,

Book cover of White Hunter, Black Heart

Book description

It was a stellar cast gathered to make an epic masterpiece...a movie that could be made only by a mad genius. And John Wilson was a cinematic genius sent dangerously out of control by the madness of Africa itself. The human cost would be awesome, reflecting the tragic legacy for…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked White Hunter, Black Heart as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Novelist Peter Viertel, an uncredited screenplay contributor to three John Huston-directed movies, wrote one of the great Hollywood-adjacent novels in this 1953 classic backgrounded by the preproduction of a fictionalized film. Hint: it’s transparently Huston’s The African Queen and the "John Wilson" character is clearly John Huston himself. The book dramatizes the hell screenwriter Peter Verill (Viertel, of course) endures when the bigger-than-life director becomes more obsessed with hunting and killing a majestic elephant than in shooting the film he’s been sent to make. 

Funny, marvelously readable, it's also rich with wry and knowing portraits of characters based…

Want books like White Hunter, Black Heart?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like White Hunter, Black Heart.

Browse books like White Hunter, Black Heart

Book cover of Fergus
Book cover of Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
Book cover of Crash

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,350

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Hollywood, presidential biography, and Los Angeles?

Hollywood 121 books
Los Angeles 362 books