Its exciting account of air adventure, combined with lyrical prose and the spirit of a philosopher, makes it one of the most popular works ever written about flying. Translated by Lewis Galantière.

    Reprinted many times, this classic, of Agnes Keith's observations and reflections of the time, is a true-to-life record of society and culture then and of the captivating natural beauty of Sabah. Today, Sabah continues to be known as the "land below the wind", a phrase used by seafarers in the past to describe all the lands south of the typhoon belt, but which Agnes effectively reserved for Sabah through her book. One of few written accounts of contemporary life in Borneo in the 1930s, this book is an invaluable record of a world gone by.

    The New York of 1939 was a city where adventures began "under the clock" at the Biltmore, and the big liners sailed at midnight. The Yankees were on their way to four in a row, and Times Square was truly the crossroads of the world.

    Working as a teller in a London bank, he thirsted for adventure. After pooling his savings with a friend, he quit his job and went to sea on a 31 foot yawl. After a brief sail down the Portuguese coast they crossed the Atlantic and spent a pleasant season among the Caribbean islands until their money gave out. At that point they found work on a coconut plantation. When a hurricane destroyed their labors, they went back to sea once more. Puleston's subsequent adventures included a shipwreck off Cape Hatteras, a grim voyage down from Newfoundland on the schooner 'Marit', knocking ice off her decks to keep her from sinking, and an excursion diving for a treasure galleon on Silver Shoals.Puleston was then asked to join the Fahnstock brothers on 'Director' and sailed her through the Panama Canal to the strange Galapagos and the enchanted isles of the Marquesas and Tahiti. Meandering though the Western Pacific, taken captive by cannibals in the New Hebrides and suffering malarial fevers from the jungles of New Guinea, this bluewater vagabond experienced one adventure after another. He finally landed in Peking just as it was falling to the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese War."Travel abroad was far more of an adventure," Puleston writes of that time in his foreword. "Conrad Hilton was probably still in diapers, the Kentucky chicken colonel had not yet reached that exalted rank, and Pan American had yet to span the oceans." Blue Water Vagabond draws the reader into this now-vanished world.

    

    She didn't set out to be a writer and it wasn't until late in life that she wrote down her experiences with the help of the letters that she had sent to friends and that they had saved.

    After six decades and more, its pages still provide a wealth of reliable historic, geographic, and cultural information on Kansas, as well as some intriguing lore that many modern-day readers will find new. Not the least of its contributions is the accurate picture it gives of Kansas between the Great Depression and World War II--of its industrial, agricultural, and natural resources.The book is divided into three sections: seventeen topical essays covering subjects such as Indians, folklore, religion, and architecture; touring information of the eighteen largest Kansas cities and towns; and twelve automobile tours spanning Kansas and border states. Included are eighty photographs, four maps, and an essay on the contemporary scene by William Allen White.