White Gold: The Diary of a Rubber Cutter in the Amazon 1906-1916 [Paperback]

Ghillean Jungjohann (Author), Sir Ghillean T. Prance (Editor), Director (Editor), Royal Botanic Gardens (Editor), Kew (Editor), UK (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 1989

The crisis of the rainforest began a century ago when it was discovered to be a source of rubber. This brought commercial interests into collision with this complex ecology - its plants,its animals and its peoples. At the height of the rubber boom in the early years of this century, a young American, John Yungjohan, struggled for survival as a rubber cutter. The diaries he kept have recently come to light and have been edited by Sir Ghillean Prance of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, England, one of the foremost botanical gardens in the world. Dr. Prance is a leading expert on the rainforest. The diaries are especially poignant now since the rubber cutters are fighting to preserve something of the original forest against the ravages of the indiscriminate destruction which still ignores the true wealth of the region - its almost incomprehensible variety of species. It is a tale of humanity and the natural order working together in the midst of greed and ignorance. Ghillean Prance enhances the text with his own contemporary photographs and identifies the fungi, plants and animals which are mentioned in the pages of the diaries.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Readers of this journal will find this first hand account fascinating and will appreciate the efforts of a work wearyrubber cutter to not only survive the experience but to write about it." --Journal of Ethnobiology

"White Gold...sets forth the depravity of ruthless men who stop at nothing to exploit their fellows, heedless of their sufferings and deaths in the unfamiliar jungle environment where they hoped to earn a living. How fortunate that the diary of the American youth John Yungjohann has come to light and that the famous botanist Dr. Ghillean Prance, with years of experience, in the Amazon, has so understandably edited it." --Dr. Richard Evans Schultes, Director (Emeritus), Harvard Botanical Museum

"How fortunate that the diary of the American youth John Yungjohann has come to light and that the famous botanist Dr Ghillean Prance, with years of experience in the Amazon, has so understandably edited it. It is thoroughly pleasing, easy reading, and would make a good supplement to a high school or college course that deals with economic plants or the Amazon ... Plan on reading it in one sitting." --George K. Rogers, Missouri Botanical Garden

About the Author

Yungjohann wrote his diary at the turn of the century, and documented what some of the horrors and daily life of the rubber cutter were like at the height of the Amazon rubber boom. He was an adventurer and an artist. He died in 1930.

Product Details

• Paperback: 103 pages
• Publisher: Synergetic Press; 1 edition (June 10, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0907791166
• ISBN-13: 978-0907791164
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #830,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Real" survivor, June 13, 2000

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"jas-webb" - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Gold: The Diary of a Rubber Cutter in the Amazon 1906-1916 (Paperback)

How Yungjohann got to So. America is a mystery. But he worked on a coffee plantation from 1896-1906 and had set his eyes on cutting rubber to make some money. Going up the Amazon in a steam boat he finally arrived at the mouth of the Xapuri and hooks up with seven men to cut rubber on contract. A month longer up the river, in a canoe, with a guide, finds the group on the banks of the Rio Acre trying to hack out a piece of jungle to make a home. They cut rubber trees, bleeding them, as a fever begans to decimate their ranks. In two months Yungjohann is alone having buried all his compadres. He struggles on, fighting animals and disease--He would find 18 foot boas sleepng on his chest when he awoke in the morning, which screemed like cats when he moved...But did he make money? No. his supplies cost him more than he made. He went out again for eight months, with new men, who also died. For ten years he perseverd in the wilds of the Amazon. The men he met, what he learned in the jungle and camps makes for reading found in no other book. This is the man's diary. IT'S TOO SHORT!