Enchanted Islands

by Allison Amend

Frances and Ainslie Conway were real people who lived on the Galápagos Islands: Santiago (1937–1938), Floreana (1938–1941), and again on Santiago (1946–1950). Frances wrote two memoirs about their time there, The Enchanted Islands and Return to the Island, published in 1948 and 1952, respectively.

  Frances’s memoirs reveal little beyond her daily tribulations living on the islands and say nothing about any espionage activities, though the idea that they were spies has been suggested by others before me. I based the characters on Frances’s and Ainslie’s birth and death dates, and Frances’s memoirs, which are dedicated to Rosaline Fisher. Everything else is pure invention.

  Throughout, I tried to stay generally true to historical events (though I may have moved a sea voyage or two) except when they conflicted with the narrative (I am a novelist first, and a mediocre historian). President Roosevelt really did visit the Galápagos, and there was indeed a military base there during World War II.

  The Galápagos Islands are an enchanted place, and their human history is fascinating. As Darwin put it, “this archipelago…seems to be a little world within itself.”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The author wishes to thank the usual suspects:

  Sheila and Jim Amend

  Anthony Amend and Nicole Hynson

  Adelman Cousins

  Terra Chalberg

  Ronit Wagman

  Nan A. Talese

  Dan Meyer

  Carolyn Hessel

  Margot Grover and Mark Bailie

  Lynn and Steven Perkins

  Francesca Segal

  Irina Reyn

  Nora Gomringer

  The Delta Schmeltas: Sheri Joseph, Dika Lam, Lara JK Wilson, and Margo Rabb

  The following Galapágueños (and honorary citizens) provided lodging and advice:

  Kerrie Littlejohn

  Magno Bennett

  Ros Cameron

  Claudio Cruz

  Aura Cruz

  Erika Wittmer

  Linda Cayot

  Dayna Goldfine

  The following organizations provided support:

  Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers

  Writers Omi at Ledig House

  Paragraph Workspace for Writers

  The Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature

  The Jewish Book Council

  The Professional Staff Congress and the City University of New York

  Lynn Perkins, Jamie Chatel, and Vice Admiral Jim Perkins, USN (Ret) provided expertise and research help.

  Valuable information was obtained from John Woram’s wonderful website: www.galapagos.to as well as his fascinating book Charles Darwin Slept Here, which I recommend highly to those who want more information about the human history of the Galápagos.

  William Baehr of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York, and Melinda Hayes of the Hancock Foundation Archive at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles were very helpful, as were the resources at the New York Public Library.

  Other sources consulted include:

  The Enchanted Islands by Ainslie and Frances Conway

  Return to the Island by Ainslie and Frances Conway

  Satan Came to Eden: A Survivor’s Account of the “Galapagos Affair” by Dore Stauch

  Floreana: A Woman’s Pilgrimage to the Galapagos by Margret Wittmer

  The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (film)

  The private letters of Marilyn Hynson (1928–2015)

  And thank you, Frances, for living and recording your remarkable experience.

  A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Allison Amend, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is the author of the Independent Publisher Book Award–winning short-story collection Things That Pass for Love and the novels Stations West (a finalist for the 2011 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the Oklahoma Book Award) and A Nearly Perfect Copy. She lives in New York.

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