Jerry Of The Islands
Average rating |
|
4 out of 5
|
Based on 6 Ratings and 6 Reviews |
Book Description
JERRY OF THE ISLANDS BY JACK LONDON. FOREWORD It is a misfortune to some fiction writers that fiction and unveracity in the average persons mind mean one and the same thing. Several years ago - 1 published a South Sea novel. The action was placed in the Solomon Islands. The action was praised by the critics and reviewers as a highly creditable effort of the imagination. As regards reality - they s...
MoreJERRY OF THE ISLANDS BY JACK LONDON. FOREWORD It is a misfortune to some fiction writers that fiction and unveracity in the average persons mind mean one and the same thing. Several years ago - 1 published a South Sea novel. The action was placed in the Solomon Islands. The action was praised by the critics and reviewers as a highly creditable effort of the imagination. As regards reality - they said there wasnt any. Of course, as every one knew, kinky-haired cannibals no longer obtained on the earths surface, much less ran around with nothing on, chopping off one anothers heads, and, on occasion, a white mans head as well. Now listen. I am writing these lines in Honolulu, Hawaii. Yesterday, on the beach at Waikiki, a stranger spoke to me. He mentioned a mutual friend, Captain When - 1. wrecked in the Solomons thc - Minota, it was Captain ella mastero f the vi FOREWORD blackbirder, the Eugknie, who rescued me. The blacks had taken Captain Kellars head, the stranger told me. He knew. He had represented Captain Kellars mother in settling up the estate. Listen. I received a letter the othersday from Mr. C. M. Woodford, Resident Commissioner of the British Solomons. He was back at his post, after a long furlough to England, where he had entered his son into Oxford. A search of the shelves of almost any public library will bring to light a book entitled, A Naturalist Among the Head Hunters. Mr. C. M. Woodford is the naturalist. He wrote the book. To return to his letter. In the course of the days work, he casually and briefly mentioned a particular job he had just got off his hands. His absence in England had been the cause of delay. The job had been to make a punitive expedition to a neighboring island, and, incidentally, to recover the heads of some mutual friends of ours-a white trader, his white wife and children, and his white clerk. The expedition was successful, and Mr. Woodford conc l ded his account of the epi FOREWORD sode with a statement to the effect What especially struck me was the absence of pain and terror in their faces, which seemed to express, rather, serenity and repose -this, mind you, of men and women of his own race whom he knew well and who had sat at dinner with him in his own house. Other friends, with whom I have sat at dinner in the brave, rollicking days in the Solomons, have since passed out - by the same way. My goodness I sailed in the teak-built ketch, the Minota, on a blackbirding cruise to Malaita, and I took my wife along. The hatchet-marks were still raw on the door of our tiny stateroom, advertis ing an event of a few months before. The event was the taking of Captain Mackenzies head, Captain Mackenzie, at that time, being master of the Minota. As we sailed in to a n a - tahen a British Cruiser, the Cambrian, steamed out from the shelling of a village. It is not expedient to burden this preliminary to my story with further details, which I do make asseveration I possess a-plenty. I hope I. have given some1 assurance that, he adventures of my . . . v111 - FOREWORD dog hero in this novel are real adventures in a very real cannibal world. Bless you - when I took my wife along on the cruise of the Minota, we found on board a nigger-chasing, adorable Irish terrier puppy, who was smooth-coated like Jerry, and whose name was Peggy. Had it not been for Peggy, this book would never have been written. She was the chattel of the Minotas splendid skipper. So much did Mrs. London and I come to love her that Mrs. London, after the wreck of the Minota, deliberately and shamelessly stole her from the Minotas skipper. I do further admit that I did, deliberately and shamelessly, compound my wifes felony...
You must be a member of JacketFlap to add a video to this page. Please
Log In or
Register.
View Jack London's profile