The amazing Discovery of Agnes Newton Keith
On a hill here in Sandakan overlooking the bay of the Sulu Sea is the house of
Agnes and Harry Keith. Probably you never heard of them - as did I. But I got intrigued when I visited the house (now the Agnes Keith Museum) and learned about this amazing woman. Born into a wealthy family in Oakland IL. she became a reporter in SF, met an English man, Harry Keith who worked for the North Borneo Government as the Conservator of Forests and Director of Agriculture. They maried and sailed to Borneo in 1934. In her trilogy she describes first the live in pre-war Borneo (
Land Below The Wind), her stay in the Japanese camps during the war (
Three Came Home) and their final return to Borneo (
White Man Returns). I couldn't help and bought the books right away and haven't start reading since... They are warm, funny and a excellent description of life in Sandakan in the 1930s. When there were still people living in the jungle who never had seen ice (stone water) planes (flying boats) or what have you. She also gives a compelling account of here adventures while walking trails in the jungles week after week and to try to deal with the bugs and having apes as pets.
Her story about here Japanese Camp years was made in to a movie with Claudette Colbert in 1950.
You can see it on youtube here. After their days in Borneo, Agnes and Keith lived in the Philippines and Libya she even went to Japan to reconcile with here Japanese captures. What an amazing full life she must have had.
But no time to waste now: I HAVE to return to the books
http://archive.org/details/ThreeCameHomeClaudetteColbertHankrip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Newton_Keith
