The Dark River

A cultural and geographical picture of Tahiti as it was during the early 20th Century. Two young Englishmen stop there on a tour of the south seas. Both fall in love with the people and landscape. This is a story of adventure, love and tragedy set in breathtaking lands of abundant vegetation and kind hearted people.

Charles Bernard Nordhoff (1 February 1887—10 April, 1947) was an American traveler and novelist who began life in London, England, born to American parents. Nordhoff's parents returned to the United States with him in 1889, living first in Pennsylvania, then Rhode Island, and finally settling in California by 1898.

Nordhoff showed an early interest in writing. His first published work was an article in an ornithological journal, written in 1902 when he was just fifteen. At seventeen, he entered Stanford University, but transferred after one year to Harvard.

After graduation in 1909, Nordhoff worked for his father's businesses, first spending two years in Mexico managing a sugar plantation, then four years as an executive of a tile and brick company in Redlands, California. He quit in 1916, signed up with the Ambulance Corps, and travelled to France. There he joined additional American expatriates as a pilot in the Lafayette Escadrille. He finished World War I as a lieutenant in the US Army Air Service. ...