Robert Francis Jones (May 26, 1934 – December 18, 2002) was a novelist and an outdoor writer for '' Sports Illustrated'' and '' Field & Stream''. Many of his novels contain fantastic and/or surrealistic elements, causing some critics to label his work slipstream. Jones' archive resides at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jones graduated with honors from the University of Michigan in 1956 and then served in the United States Navy as an ensign, with sea duty in the western Pacific. After his military service, he was a reporter for the '' Milwaukee Sentinel'' newspaper in 1959 and then went to '' Time'' magazine in 1960. Jones transferred to its sister publication ''Sports Illustrated'' in 1968, where he covered the outdoors and a variety of sports, including

motor sports Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of tw ...

and pro

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. His contributions at ''Sports Illustrated'' included the story "Harvey On The Lam," for the August 23, 1971, issue, famously featuring

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...

doing a wheelie on a motorcycle on the cover. A Vermont resident in his later years, Jones died at age 68 of natural causes at

Southwestern Vermont Medical Center Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC) is a non-profit general medical surgical hospital located in Bennington, Vermont. It is licensed for 99-beds. Founded in the early 20th century by donations from Henry W. Putnam and his son, SVMC is the ...

Bennington Bennington is a town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. It is one of two shire towns (county seats) of the county, the other being Manchester. As of the 2020 US Census, the population was 15,333. Bennington is the most populous to ...

in late 2002, survived by his wife of 46 years and two adult children.Life In Legacy - Week of 01/11/2021
/ref>

Bibliography

Fiction

* ''Blood Sport'' (1974): Novel about a father and son fishing trip up the mythical Hassayampa river, which runs from upstate New York to China, and ancient times, and their encounter with legendary outlaw "Ratnose." * ''The Diamond Bogo'' (1978): The story of an African hunting expedition for a large cape buffalo with a giant diamond embedded in its horns, and involving the discovery of a surviving

lost race The lost world is a subgenre of the fantasy or science fiction genres that involves the discovery of an unknown Earth civilization. It began as a subgenre of the late- Victorian adventure romance and remains popular into the 21st century. The g ...

colony of

homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...

. * ''Slade's Glacier'' (1981) * ''Blood Tide'' (1990): A nautical adventure tale of a father and daughter setting out to wreak vengeance on two different men who had each betrayed them. * ''The Man-Eaters of Zamani'' (1991): Short story on the hunting of a lion in Zamani region of Somalia (Petersen's Hunting 1991) . * ''Tie My Bones To Her Back'' (AKA ''The Buffalo Runners'') (1996): Western * ''Deadville'' (1999): Western * ''The Run to Gitche Gumee''

Non-fiction

* ''Gone to the Dogs: Life With My Canine Companions'' * ''Dancers in the Sunset Sky'' * ''The Fishing Doctor: the Essential Tackle Box Companion'' * ''The Hunter In My Heart: A Sportsman's Salmagundi'' * ''African Twilight: The Story of a Hunter'' * ''Upland Passage: A Field Dog's Education'' * ''Jake: A Labrador Puppy at Work and Play''

References

1934 births 2002 deaths 20th-century American novelists American magazine writers American male novelists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers Sportswriters from Wisconsin Novelists from Wisconsin United States Navy officers University of Michigan alumni {{US-sportswriter-stub