SKU: 900-book-many-a-green-isle
Many a Green Isle

Description

Many a Green Isle

By Glanville Smith
Publisher ‏Harper and Brothers
Used: Hardcover pages 283 size 6 X 8.5 X 1.5 inches.

Here is that rare thing, a narrative of personal adventure in one of the out-of-the-way regions of the world, written by a man who is a great stylist and wit, and who has the knack of sharing with others all the exhilaration of his unusual experiences.
Buoyed up by a Guggenheim Fellow-ship, armed with a friendly curiosity and an inquiring eye, Glanville Smith set off on a tour of the West Indies. Against a background of the romantic history, the oddly differing character, the tropical and mountainous charm of the islands, he spins an absorbing account of his adventures in sloop and hidden cove, church and grogshop, plantation and native town. A persistent interest in food, music, water sports, folklore, and the more engaging side of human nature gives the book its pervasive color; and it is full of memorable anecdotes, such as the story of how he was pressed into service as a photographer of nudes for the London underworld, his description of nutmeg-husking, his tales of the piety of buc-caneers, and his account of learning native songs from a brown boy of Grenada.
As chapter follows chapter, each falling into its place like the individual pieces of a mosaic, and as the scene shifts from Calabash to Port-au-Prince, from Carriacou to Tortola or St. Barts or the Grand Cayman, there emerges a crystal-clear picture of what the islands and the people are like and why. The result is an enchanting and informative record of personal adventure, packed with information about a little known region that has lately assumed vast new importance to the United States.