Not the oldest, but Woodcraft and Camping by George Washington Sears aka "Nessmuk" is a classic. First published in 1884...

Good one. It's also available here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34607?msg=welcome_stranger

Like Galton's book, Kephart's still-in-print classic grew through multiple editions, of which the 1917 version is the last.

I see no version at Project Gutenberg, alas, but the versions at Internet Archive seem clean, and have pretty much every format you could ask for: read online, or download as .pdf, epub, Kindle, or plaintext.

1st ed 1906: 321 pp: https://archive.org/details/bookofcampingwoo00keph
4th ed 1910: 331 pp, https://archive.org/details/bookofcampingwoo01keph
5th ed 1912: 331 pp, https://archive.org/details/bookofcampingwoo02keph
1917 version, 469 pp, https://archive.org/details/campingwoodcraft00kephrich

i'll go with "the way of the woods" by Edward Breck,1908.
not a survival manual as such but it tells you everything you need to know about camping in the northeast US and Canada.the one bit of "survival"advice is to never leave camp without a wood box of matches and another of salt.
I just thought of a pure survival book I have from 1965.a CB Colby "survival training in our armed services"

So many of the older books on the subject of camping discussed what we consider survival. Then, it was just camping. My first book on the subject was The Master Backwoodsman by Bradford Angier. Not particularly old, but a good read.

I don't think we see any real old survival books because "survival" did not really become much of a subject until the 50's when it became connected with post atomic war getting along.
now you can buy survival everything for every possible event.

There are many published "survival" books at archive.org. Many of these date back to the mid 1800's. Back then, these books were not titled nor written as survival books. Instead they went by the name and genre such as Camping, Wood-lore, Exploring etc.

When I was a very young lad in the late 70's and early 80's, books I borrowed from libraries were of this nature. Little did I know - but those books I read then would make a very profound impact and lasting influence in my life - namely my love of the outdoors.

You and me both, my friend.

My first such book on the subject was: My Side of the Mountain.

I have gotten some EXCELLENT suggestions from everyone here, thank you!

The thing I have noticed is that on my weekly trips to the bookstores in the area, It seems that every week some yahoo comes out with a new survival book. Granted, some of them are great, some are just slick printed clay stock with pretty pictures and conflicting info at best.

I had also noticed some time back that Doug does not seem to be updating the survival bookshelf reviews. Anyone know the story on that? It would seem, with the great proliferation of new books, it might be a worthwhile endeavour for someone to keep up with the reviews and new postings.

Also, I came across an interesting old one from 65.

The Art of Survival by Cord Christian Troebst, original copyright 1963 (German) American translation and copyright 1965. It looks well written, with no flashy pictures. . .

Chapter 1 Should we Train for an Emergency?
Chapter 2 Learning to Survive
Chapter 3 Survival in the Desert
Chapter 4 Survival at Sea
Chapter 5 Survival in Snow and Ice
Chapter 6 Survival in the Tropics
Chapter 7 Survival after Plane Crashes
Chapter 8 Today's rescue equipment-
Good and Bad
Chapter 9 What Man Can Stand

Any thoughts on this one? I've not started reading it yet.


One other one comes to mind Survival Psychology by John Leach.

Amazingly, I was able to secure a copy about 2 years ago. As great as the info is, I am surprised it has not been reprinted.

Wesley