THIS BOOK HAS BEEN SOLD
ROAMING THROUGH THE WEST INDIES
Harry A. Franck
VG. First Edition, not a reprint. A tight, bright copy, without
dust jacket. Black lettering & decorations on green boards. 9x6
[larger than reprint editions]. Photographs, map of author's itinerary,
486 pp. This, the true first edition, possesses numerous photographs,
including many Marine Corps & other military photos, not found in
the Blue Ribbon or Grossett & Dunlap reprints. The captions of
some of these photos are as follows: "Cuban soldiers"; "A Haitian
gendarme"; "A small portion of one collection of captured
caco war material"; "The caco in the foreground (in leg
irons) killed a Marine"; "Capt Hanneken (who killed Charlemagne) and General Jean Conze at Christophe's Citadel"; "Dominican guardias"; "Railroading in Santo Domingo (a Marine & two civilians sitting in the open door of a boxcar)"; "American Marines on the march (riding oxen)". Franck, a renowned world traveller & writer of the early twentieth century, spent a good deal of time in Haiti and Santo Domingo in the company of the US Marines occupying the island at that time. He devotes an entire chapter to the death of
Charlemagne and interviewed the Marine responsible for Charlemagne's
death, Capt Hanneken, and even includes entries from Hanneken's
official
diary. Franck was quite intrepid, and ventured off into the Haitian bush, encountering cacos & Marines alike. He also did not hesitate to level criticisms at the Marines when he found their activities & policies destructive. Franck was an astute, experienced and unaffiliated observer, with a keen eye for distinctive landscape, colorful individuals, cultural variations & corrupt politics, and his account is accordingly uncommon & valuable.
Excerpt: "As far as the marine-garrisoned town of Mirebalais
the road was passable, though it had steadily deteriorated from the
modern highway of the plain to a road made only by the feet of animals and men... Here and there we forded a considerable stream, meeting at one of them a group of marines driving pack-laden donkeys and cattle, in some cases astride the latter, more often splashing thigh-deep through the water, and with a score of produce-bearing natives plodding at their heels... At the town of Maissade we halted at a marine camp on a hill over-looking the surrounding country, and commanded by Captain Becker, a famous hunter of cacos. His tent was almost filled with captured war material: rifles of every kind in use a century ago corded like so much stove-wood; revolvers and pistols enough to stock a museum devoted to the history and development of that arm; French swords dating back to the seventeenth century; rapiers such as flash through Dumas' stories; heaps of rusted machetes, battered bugles, bamboo musical instruments, and hollow-log tomtoms from voodoo temples..." While reprints of this title [lacking the map & Marine Corps photos] are fairly common, true firsts are increasingly difficult to locate. Out of Print.
$55.00
