This then is the raw material out of which, over the years, Levkas Man has gradually grown. The theories upon which it is based are academic, and here I would like to acknowledge the kindly and constructive help I received from Eric S. Wood. For the purposes of my story I have taken some liberties with geology and with the placing of the various cave-shelters; none with the settings, all of which I have personally explored. The red dunes do exist; they were shown to me by E. S. Higgs.
HAMMOND INNES
Kersey, 1970
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author has quoted from the following works: Raymond Dart: Adventures with the Missing Link (Viking); Kenneth Oakley: Frameworks for Dating Fossil Man (Aldine); W. J. Turner: lines from "The Caves of Auvergne," which appears in Modern Poets, edited by J. C. Squire (Martin Seeker). The author is also indebted to many other source books, including of course Robert Ardrey's African Genesis (Atheneum).
A Note About the Author
Hammond Innes, a Scot born in England, published his first novel there within a year of being demobilized after the war. Since then he has written thirteen novels, best-sellers around the world. The material of his stories is the character of a country, its people and their way of life. In search of this he has travelled luidely—from the Outer Hebrides to the Maldivian islands of the Indian Ocean, from Labrador to the Empty Quarter of Arabia. Accounts of these travels, and of the sea voyages made in his own boats, appear in Harvest of Journeys and Sea and Islands.
His most recent work, The Conquistadors, is a history of the conquests of Mexico and Peru by a handful of Spanish adventurers. This re-creation of two of the greatest and most terrible stories in history won high praise from academic as well as literary critics, and has had a great success here and abroad.
In /p37 Mr. Innes married Dorothy Lang, actress noiu turned playwright, who is a kins-xuoman of Andrew Lang and Sir Walter Scott. They live in Suffolk, England.
A Note on the Type
This book was set on the Linotype in a type face called Baskerville. The face is a facsimile reproduction of types cast from molds made for John Baskerville (iyo6-yy) from his designs. The punches for the revived Linotype Baskerville were cut under the supervision of the English printer George W. Jones.
John Baskerville's original face was one of the forerunners of the type style known as "modern face" to printers—a "modern" of the period A.D. iSoo.
Composed, printed, and bound by H. Wolff Book Manufacturing Co., Inc., New York, New York.
Typography and binding design by Paula Diane Silver
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CAPt DUMTO
Hammond Innes, a Scot, was born in England in 1913. His first book was published in 1936. The following year he married Dorothy Lang, an actress since turned playwright. He wrote five more books while working at the same time as a financial journalist in London. During World War II he served as an artillery officer in the Middle East and Italy.
Within a year of being demobilized he published his first best seller. Since then he has written thirteen novels, all world best sellers, as well as accounts of his voyages and travels, including Harvest o^ Journeys and Sea and Islands. In 1969 he wrote The Conquistadors, his first work of history, which was published to international acclaim.
Mr. Innes's main interests, apart from writing, are sailing and forestry. He and his wife have traveled the world, often sailing their oVn boat, in search of the adventures that fill his books and the firsthand experience that gives his narratives their ring of truth.
Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher, New York
Levkas Man (Mystery) Page 33