Charles Bernard Nordhoff

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Charles Bernard Nordhoff (born February 1, 1887 in London , England , † April 10, 1947 in Montecito , California ) was an American writer and traveler.

Life

Charles Nordhoff was born in London (England) to American parents. His father was Walter Nordhoff, a wealthy businessman and author of Die Reise der Flamme , written under the name "Antonio de Fierro Blanco". His mother, Sarah Cope Whitall, was a descendant of Pennsylvania Quakers . Nordhoff's parents returned to the United States with him in 1889, first living in Pennsylvania, then in Rhode Island and finally settling in California in 1898 .

After leaving military service, Nordhoff stayed in Paris , France , where he worked as a journalist and wrote his first book, The Chick . In 1919, he and another former Lafayette squadron pilot, James Norman Hall , also a writer and journalist, were asked to write a story about this unit. Neither of them had known each other during the war. Their first literary collaboration, The Lafyette Air Corps , was published in 1920.

Nordhoff divorced his first wife in 1936, left Tahiti a few years later and returned to California. There he married Laura Grainger Whiley in 1941. During the Second World War , the Liberty freighter SS Charles Nordhoff (built in Portland, Oregon in 1943 ) was named after him.

Charles Bernard Nordhoff died of heart failure on April 10, 1947 in Montecito , California. His body was found the next morning by Tod Ford, who wanted to visit him to work on their book together. According to newspaper reports, a suicide has not been ruled out because of Nordhoff's alcohol addiction and depression.

Selected Works

  • The chick , 1919
  • The Lafayette Air Corps with James Norman Hall, 1920
  • Elbenlands of the South Pacific with James Norman Hall, 1921
  • Picaro , 1924
  • The Pearl Lagoon , 1924
  • The wreck , 1928
  • Falcons from France with James Norman Hall, 1929
  • The Bounty Trilogy with James Norman Hall
  • The hurricane with James Norman Hall, 1936
  • The Dark River with James Norman Hall, 1938
  • No more gas with James Norman Hall, 1940
  • In Yankee Windjammers , 1940
  • Men Without a Country with James Norman Hall, 1942
  • Sydney Penal Colony ( Botany Bay 1941) with James Norman Hall, 1944
  • High Barbaree with James Norman Hall, 1945
  • The wide lands with Tom Ford, 1950 ( posthumous )

Film adaptations

The book Mutiny on the Bounty was the template for the film of the same name from 1935 and for two later versions. Subsequent authors have published a different, well-researched view of the actual events of the mutiny, not about the mistreatment by Captain Bligh but about the lure of South Pacific life to the ship's crew.

literature

  • Twentieth Century Authors , HEWilson & Accompaniment, 1942 (autobiographical article)
  • American National Biography , Supplement 1, New York, Oxford University Press, 2002 (joint entry with James Norman Hall)
  • World Authors 1900-1950 , vol. 3rd ed. By Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996); Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, ed. By Kay Mussell, Alison Light, Aruna Vasudevan (1994); In Search of Paradise: The Nordhoff-Hall Story by PL Briand (1966)

Web links

swell

  • US Census, 190s for Los Angeles County, California
  • New York Times , Charles Nordhoff, author, dies at 60 , April 12, 1947, p. 17
  • New York Times, A Lively Tale of a Maritime Adventure , October 16, 1932, p. BR7
  • California Death Index, 1940-1997
personal data
SURNAME Nordhoff, Charles Bernard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer and traveler
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH London , England
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1947
Place of death Montecito , California