Has anybody heard of this guy...it appears he is, or rather was the real deal. Lawrence Griswold was a Harvard educated American archaeologist in the 1930's & 40's and spent a considerable amount of time in South America & the Far East, from tramping around Mayan ruins to hunting for Komodo dragons.
I am reading his book 'Tombs, Travel & Trouble' written by Griswold in 1937 (which I discovered by accident on ABE Books when looking for other period books on Archaeology) and it is, quite simply, amazing (assuming his exploits are true...and I have no reason to doubt them so far)
To quote from the foreword of the book;
'In fact most of the time I was either scared to death, too busy to think about it all, or just damned annoyed. Adventures, in retrospect are pieces of extremely bad luck that missed a fatal ending. A set of circumstances starts a chain of consequences. If you are in the immediate vicinity the chances are you are about to undergo an adventure. If it turns out fatally for your side, it's a tragedy. If it turns out fatally for the other side or with nobody hurt at all, it's a comedy. One or the other, tragedy or comedy - it's never adventure when it's going on!'
The book has a map on the inside of the cover which could be straight out of the IJ stories...I will put an image up when I get the chance.
Reading continues...
I am reading his book 'Tombs, Travel & Trouble' written by Griswold in 1937 (which I discovered by accident on ABE Books when looking for other period books on Archaeology) and it is, quite simply, amazing (assuming his exploits are true...and I have no reason to doubt them so far)
To quote from the foreword of the book;
'In fact most of the time I was either scared to death, too busy to think about it all, or just damned annoyed. Adventures, in retrospect are pieces of extremely bad luck that missed a fatal ending. A set of circumstances starts a chain of consequences. If you are in the immediate vicinity the chances are you are about to undergo an adventure. If it turns out fatally for your side, it's a tragedy. If it turns out fatally for the other side or with nobody hurt at all, it's a comedy. One or the other, tragedy or comedy - it's never adventure when it's going on!'
The book has a map on the inside of the cover which could be straight out of the IJ stories...I will put an image up when I get the chance.
Reading continues...