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Title: West with the Night by Beryl Markham ISBN: 0-86547-118-5 Publisher: North Point Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1982 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (79 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Companion piece to Out of Africa. Should be read together
Comment: From the age of 4, Beryl Markham lived in East Africa and spent her childhood with native Maruni children as her only playmates. She was there during the same era as Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), author of Out of Africa, and reading these two books together gives a lyrical, poetic, and heart-full-of-love picture of the Africa they both knew. But it wasn't only Africa they loved; they both shared a passion for the same men: Bror Blixen (Dinesen's husband) and Denys Finch-Hatton (Dinnesen's lover), so, inevitably their paths collided at times.
Although Dinesen is more well-known and respected as a writer compared to Markham, better known as an adventurer, Markham rises to heights of poetic imagery and her writing style was praised highly by many other writers of her era, including no less than Ernest Hemingway.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent book of a life in Eastern Africa
Comment: Whoever wrote it, "West With the Night" is a lyrically beautiful story of an amazing life: Beryl Markham arrived in Africa in 1905 at the age of three, she spent her childhood on her father's farm, learning all about African people and wildlife; she became a horse-trainer (racing was surprisingly popular in colonial Kenya); she was the first woman in Africa to have a pilot's license, working as a freelance pilot in Kenya; she was the first person to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic East-to-West (hence the book's title). This book is an interesting and very readable documentation of Kenya in the era of Isak Dinesen, Bror Blixen, Denys Finch Hatton, et al (all of whom she knew). Hemingway praised this book lavishly, saying:
"Did you read Beryl Markham's book, "West with the Night"? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer's log book. As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. .... But this girl who is, to my knowledge, very unpleasant,... can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers. The only parts of it that I know about personally, on account of having been there at the time and heard the other people's stories, are absolutely true. So, you have to take as truth the early stuff about when she was a child which is absolutely superb. She omits some very fantastic stuff which I know about which would destroy much of the character of the heroine; but what is that anyhow in writing?"
As Hemingway may have suspected, Markham may not be the real author, and "West With the Night" does leave out major portions of her life; it would be a good idea to read it along with the biography of her life, "Straight On Till Morning: The Biography of Beryl Markham" by Mary Lovell (Lovell also wrote "A Rage to Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton").
Rating: 5
Summary: First aviatrix in Africa
Comment: The rule is, I found, that females can't write. I am staying away from what my own gender writes. Beryl Markham is a wonderful exception to my rule. Ernest Hemingway felt dwarfed by the authoress.
Beryl wrote in 1936, and Africa were she grew up was obviously different than now. She describes first hand encounters with lions and elephants, very interesting observations on animal behavior. She also describes the natives, and I wished she would have even gotten more into them. I love her philosophy on life and often I got the feeling she is writing right now, not 70 years ago. A great book for people curious about Africa! Put it into your collection, because you want to read it again!
Addendum April 30, 2004: After writing the above review I have learned from the biography "The Lives of Beryl Markham" by Errol Trzebinski that Beryl did not write "West with the Night", but her third husband Raoul Schumacher, a Hollywood ghostwriter. I learned that Beryl herself could only write aviation log books and horsebreeding stable accounts, but could not write herself out of a telephone booth if her life depended on it. Nevertheless, the book deserves 5 stars, and sorry to say my conviction that my gender has no literary talents is proven once more. The acclaim for this fine literary jewel needs to go to Raoul Schumacher.
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Title: The Lives of Beryl Markham by Errol Trzebinski, Errol Trzevinski ISBN: 0393312526 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: March, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, Lewis Galantiere ISBN: 0151970874 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 15 October, 1992 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Elspeth Huxley ISBN: 0141183780 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 31 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Out of Africa by ISAK DINESEN ISBN: 0679600213 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 05 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass by Isak Dinesen ISBN: 0679724753 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 23 October, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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