David Grann - The Lost City of Z - A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon

8 “outwalk and outhike”:Loren McIntyre, in transcript of interview on National Public Radio, March 15, 1999.

8 “Fawcett marked”:K.G.G., “Review: Exploration Fawcett,” Geographical Journal, Sept. 1953, p. 352.

8 Among them was:Doyle, notes to Lost World, p. 195; Percy Harrison Fawcett, Ex- ploration Fawcett, p. 122. There is little known about the origins of the relationship between Percy Fawcett and Conan Doyle. Exploration Fawcett notes that Conan Doyle had attended one of Fawcett's lectures delivered before the Royal Geographical Society. Once, in a letter to Conan Doyle, Fawcett remembered how the author had tried to contact him during the writing of The Lost World, but because Fawcett was off in the jungle Nina had been forced to respond. In The Annotated Lost World, published in 1996, Roy Pilot and Alvin Rodin point out that Fawcett was “well known to Conan Doyle” and catalog the many similarities between Fawcett and the novel's fictional explorer John Roxton. Interestingly, Percy Fawcett may not have been the only member of his family to influence Conan Doyle's famous literary work. In 1894, nearly two decades before Conan Doyle came out with The Lost World, Fawcett's brother, Edward, published Swallowed by an Earthquake -a novel that similarly tells of men discovering a hidden world of prehistoric dinosaurs. In an article in the British Heritage in 1985, Edward Fawcett's literary executor and the author Robert K. G. Temple accused Conan Doyle of borrowing “shamelessly” from Edward's now largely forgotten novel.

8 “disappear into the unknown”:Doyle, Lost World, p. 63.

9 “Something there was”:Ibid., p. 57.

9 The ship:My descriptions of the Vauban and life on board ocean liners come from, among other places, the Lamport & Holt brochure “South America: The Land of Opportunity, a Continent of Scenic Wonders, a Paradise for the Tourist;” Heaton's Lamport & Holt; and Maxtone-Graham's Only Way to Cross.

9 “the great discovery”:Fawcett to John Scott Keltie, Feb. 4, 1925, RGS.

10 “What is there”: Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1925.

10 “their eyes in”:Ralegh, Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of Guiana, pp. 177-78. 10 “thorow hollow”:Ibid., p. 114.

10 “We reached”:Carvajal, Discovery of the Amazon, p. 172.

11 “Does God think”:Quoted in Hemming, Search for El Dorado, p. 144.

11 “Commend thyself”:Simón, Expedition of Pedro de Ursua & Lope de Aguirre, p. 227.

11 “I swear to”:Quoted in Hemming, Search for El Dorado, p. 144. 11 “It is perhaps”: Atlanta Constitution, Jan. 12, 1925.

11 “The central place”:Brian Fawcett, Ruins in the Sky, p. 48.

12 “Not since”:Colonel Arthur Lynch, “Is Colonel Fawcett Still Alive?” Graphic (London), Sept. 1, 1928.

12 “I cannot say”:Fawcett to Keltie, Aug. 18, 1924, RGS.

12 “is about the only”:Quoted in Fawcett to Isaiah Bowman, April 8, 1919, AGS.

13 “it would be hopeless”:Arthur R. Hinks to Captain F. W. Dunn-Taylor, July 6, 1927, RGS.

13 “If with all”:Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 304.

13 “will be no pampered”:Ibid., pp. 14-15.

13 “We will have to suffer”: Los Angeles Times, Jan. 28, 1925.

13 “to harass and”:Ibid.

13 “the reflection of”:Williams, introduction to AmaZonia, p. 24.

13 “six feet three”:Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 277.

13 “He is… absolutely”:Ibid., p. 15.

14 “fine physique”:Percy Harrison Fawcett, “General Details of Proposed Expedition in S. America” (proposal), n.d., RGS.

14 “He was a born”:Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 277.

14 “Now we have Raleigh”:Williams, introduction to AmaZonia, p. 10.

14 “utterly impracticable”:Dickens, American Notes, p. 13.

15 “hearse with windows”:Ibid., p. 14.

15 “perfect ventilation”:Lamport & Holt brochure, “South America.”

15 “rather tiresome”:Fawcett, epilogue to Exploration Fawcett, p. 278.

16 “Jack has”:Ibid., p. 15.

16 “Raleigh will follow”:Ibid.

16 “We shall return”: Los Angeles Times, Jan. 28, 1925.

17 It begins as barely:My descriptions of the Amazon River are drawn from several sources. They include Goulding, Barthem, and Ferreira, Smithsonian Atlas of the Amazon; Revkin, Burning Season; Haskins, Amazon; Whitmore, Introduction to Tropi cal Rain Forests; Bates, Naturalist on the River Amazons; and Price, Amazing Amazon.

19 The expedition was:My descriptions of the 1996 expedition are based on my interviews with James Lynch and members of his team as well as on information from Leal's Coronel Fawcett.

19 “among the most”:Temple, “E. Douglas Fawcett,” p. 29.

19 “captured the imagination”: Daily Mail (London), Jan. 30, 1996.

19 Evelyn Waugh's:Heath, Picturesque Prison, p. 116.

20 “Enough legend”:Fleming, Brazilian Adventure, p. 104.

20 “than those launched”: New York Times, Feb. 13, 1955.

21 “Our route”:Percy Harrison Fawcett, Exploration Fawcett, p. 269. 21 Even today: New York Times, Jan. 18, 2007.

21 “These forests are”:Hemming, Die If You Must, p. 635.

22 “No one knows”:Ibid.

22 In 2006, members: New York Times, May 11, 2006.

22 “only one and all”:Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Case for an Expedition in the Amazon Basin” (proposal), RGS.

23 “a corpse piece”:Quoted in Millard, River of Doubt, p. 168.

29 many archaeologists and geographers:For a much more detailed discussion of the academic debate over advanced civilizations in the Amazon, see Mann's 1491.

30 “counterfeit paradise”:See Meggers, Amazonia.

30 “cultural substitutes”:Ibid., p. 104.

30 “This is the jungle”:Cowell, Tribe That Hides from Man, p. 66.

30 As Charles Mann notes:Mann, 1491, p. 9.

30 “the most culturally”:Holmberg, Nomads of the Long Bow, p. 17.

30 “No records”:Ibid., p. 122.

30 “concept of romantic”:Ibid., p. 161.

30 “man in the”:Ibid., p. 261.

30 a more sophisticated:Mann, 1491, p. 328.

33 “the callowest”:Percy Harrison Fawcett, “Passing of Trinco,” p. 110.