“The Hurricane”
pp. 28-30 · Read in the full issue
Messrs. Nordhoff and Hall's New Volume of the Tuamotus
THE well-known American novelists, Messrs. Charles B. Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, who have been settled in French Oceania for some years, have sold the serial rights of their new book to the New York Saturday Evening Post. The writers have also disposed of the movie rights for “Pitcairn’s Island,” the.last book of their famous “Bounty” trilogy.
“The Hurricane” is the title of the new book. “It has proved the hardest job either Hall or I ever tackled,” said Mr. Nordhoff.
“We re-wrote it completely from beginning to end three times before we could get a draft that seemed any good at all. It took us eight months to arrive at 80,000 words for the final draft —surely a world’s record for two menl”
The scene of the story is the Tuamotu Archipelago or the so-called “Atolls of the Sun.” It deals with native life, and has only three white characters in it. The tremendous work which Messrs.
Nordhoff and Hall put into their books once again proves the old adage that hard writing makes easy reading. The clarity of style in the work of these two most interesting literary partners cf the Pacific has always been a feature of their books.
Mr. Nordhoff, who was in Sydney last year, expected to leave for the United States on December 3, but owing to the illness of one of his daughters his plans were upset.
Mr. A. H. Bunting, M.L.C., of Samarai, Papua, arrived in Australia on business by the Macdhui at the end of November.