Cannibal Land. Adventures with a Camera in the New Hebrides
first edition
1922 · Boston
by JOHNSON, MARTIN
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922. First Edition - American. Illustrated with photographs by the author, the famous explorer Martin Johnson, who later became the noted documentary filmmaker in Africa with his wife, Osa. Occasional pages uncut. Fine bright copy in a very good plus slightly dust soiled dust jacket with a few small tears. The story of the Johnson’s adventures and studies of the indigenous inhabitants of the Melanesian Islands of the South Seas, whose cannibalistic ways are both fascinating and frightening. From the last chapter, ‘A Cannibal Feast’: “I was convinced, as the day wore on, that pork was not the only meat on the bill of fare. It seemed to me that I was at last hot on the trail of cannibalism; the men from Malekula had brought with them strange packages wrapped in leaves, which, I suspected, contained human flesh. The action of the blacks confirmed my suspicion, for they guarded their packages carefully, and would not let me come near with my cameras.” (Inventory #: 16547E)