- "The Charge of the Tiger
Shark." The World Magazine, Feb. 7, 1926, p. 7, with 1 illustration
- "What Volstead Did for a South
Sea Isle" New York Herald Tribune, Sunday, March 28, 1926, p. 8
- "Saved from Cannibals
by a Stick of Dynamite" The World Magazine, April 25, 1926, pp. 8-9,
with 1 illustration
- "In the Toils of an Octopus"
The Literary Digest, May 1, 1926, pp. 60-61
- "Ruining a South Sea
Paradise to Flavor Soft Drinks" The Literary Digest, May 8, 1926,
pp. 58-62
- "Cast Alive into the Molten
Heart of a Volcano" The World Magazine, May 23, 1926, pp. 8-9,with
2 illustrations
- "American Films in Tropic Tahiti"
New York Herald Tribune Magazine, Sunday, July 25, 1926, Section VIII,
pp. 1-2
- "South Sea Adventure"
The American Girl, June 1933: with 2 illustrations
- Newbery Award Acceptance Paper,
by Armstrong Sperry (1941)
- Letter from Irene Smith,
May 5, 1941, telling him that Call It Courage had been selected for the
Newbery Medal.
- Letter from Doris S. Patee,
May 23, 1941, AWS's editor at MacMillan, discussing the arrangements for the
award ceremony.
- "A Part of Victory" by Armstrong
Sperry (1943)
- On Writing for Young People, by Armstrong
Sperry (1959)
- Correspondence with Virginia Haviland of
the Children's Book Section of the Library of Congress on the 50th Anniversary of
the Newbery Medal (1972)
- Letter from Ben Masselink, Feb.
4, 1974, the screenwriter for the Disney production of Call It Courage
- Letter from Ben Masselink,
March 11, 1974
NOTE: The following five biographical sketches
below are copied verbatim from their sources. There are inaccuracies in the content
which the page listed above corrects.
- Coming soon! Instructions to make several string figures
from Hikueru (where Mafatu was from), collected by Armstrong Sperry's good friend,
ethnologist Kenneth P. Emory.
- Please sign the Guestbook! [New additions
as of Sunday, 05/02/21]
- Send a virtual postcard with an illustration
by Armstrong Sperry
- Order new copies of Call
It Courage ($11.20), All
Sail Set ($12.95) or Wagons
Westward ($10.47) on-line at Amazon.com [off-site links]
- More books you can order from Amazon.com!
- Buy a mug
decorated with the dustjackets from every book Armstrong Sperry wrote and illustrated!
11 oz. ceramic mug: $14, 15 oz. ceramic mug: $16, 16 oz. glass mug: $18 -- plus shipping
(FREE shipping on orders over $50 through 8/25/02!) [off-site link]
- Brief introduction to Polynesian
languages written by W. D. Alexander in Honolulu in 1865, and information about
the Tahitian language
with many phrases and pronunciation. [off-site link]
- Website of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu
[off-site link]
- Hikueru, one of the low islands of the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia,
where Mafatu of Call It Courage was from:
- Images
of Paradise: Representations of the Pacific Islands in Film and Video (a webpage
to accompany a 1997 course at the University of Hawaii) [off-site link]
- Kapa: Hawaiian Bark Cloth, also
called "tapa" in Tahiti. [off-site link]
- Log of a sailing voyage
by Finnish travelers to the Tuamotus and Society Islands in the summer of 2002, with
a terrific image clarifying the difference between volcanic islands like Tahiti &
the Marquesas, barrier-reef islands like Bora Bora, and atolls like Hikueru. [off-site
link]
- French Polynesia
Chronology -- a timeline from 1513 when Balboa was the first European to discover
the Pacific Ocean to the present. Includes lots of information on early contact between
Europeans and the Polynesians, and dates of some of the worst hurricans in the region
over the past centruy. [off-site link]
- University of Minnesota Children's Literature
Research Collection Finding Aid for original manuscripts and illustrations by
Armstrong Sperry in the Kerlan Collection (1994)
- In addition to original materials in the University of Minnesota's Children's
Literature Research Collection mentioned above, the carbon typescript of Captain
Cook Explores the South Seas (1955) is located at the deGrummond
Children's Literature Collection at University of Southern Mississippi, a gift
of Armstrong Sperry on June 25, 1969. An
image of page 1 is available on-line, but with the logo of the University superimposed
on it. [off-site link]
- Thetford (VT) Historical
Society [off-site link] - My grandmother donated a lot of memorabilia about my
grandfather's career to the Thetford Historical Society in the 1970s. The
inventory of the Sperry Papers reproduced here was prepared by M.H. Wiencke,
April 19, 2001. Items from that collection, "Armstrong Sperry Papers, 1920-1976,"
which are already at this site or which I have digitzed from their collection are
accessible through hyperlinks from the inventory page.
- Dartmouth
College, Baker Library has an entry for "Papers. 1942-1947," which
includes the typescripts of two novels published by Macmillan, No Brighter Glory
(New York, 1942), and The Rain Forest (New York, 1947), the latter with extensive
ms. corrections. Gift of Armstrong Sperry. [off-site link]
- Yale University [off-site
link] has the following listing in their library's on-line card catalog:
- Title: Modern Tahitian popular songs or ute / sung by Armstrong
Sperry ; transcribed by Helen H. Roberts.
- Published: New Haven : Institute of Human Relations, Yale University,
1932.
- Location: MUDD, Stacks; Call Number: Vkg18
- Location: MUSIC LIBRARY, SML; Call Number: Mu72 R54+
- South Sea Tales, eight
short stories by Jack London about the South Pacific, is in the public domain and
available here in its entirety on-line [285K], courtesy of Project
Gutenberg. Originally published in 1911 when Armstrong Sperry was 14, he states
in his acceptance speech for the Newbery
Medal that he had read London in his childhood. This is probably one of the books
he read, which sparked his interest in exploring Polynesia for himself, and gave
him his first glimpse of the terrible storm which hit Hikueru in 1903.
- White Shadows in the South Seas by Frederick O'Brien is the book that
Armstrong Sperry claims was his main spark to travel to Polynesia. The text, while in the public domain (remember: anything prior to
1923 is in the public domain), is apparently not available for a free download, but a copy of the book
can be purchased on-line, and ebook version is also available for $4.99. [off-site links]
- In the South Seas by
Robert Louis Stevenson (pictured right) recounts Stevenson's cruises on board the
Casco and Equator in 1888 and 1889-90 is also in the public domain
and available at this site in its entirety [579K], courtesy of Project
Gutenberg. Armstrong Sperry states in his acceptance
speech for the Newbery Medal that he had read Stevenson in his childhood. It
is available in its entirety on-line at the above link. Originally published in a
limited edition in London in 1890, it was serialized in The Sun (New York),
and finally published in the U.S. by Scribner's in 1914 when Armstrong Sperry was
17. This is a book which I speculate influenced his interest in cannibals who inhabited
the high islands of the Marquesas and Tuamotus, where Hikueru is located.
- Wild Life Among the Pacific Islanders by
E. H. Lamont. Armstrong Sperry stated in a letter home to his parents in 1925 that he had read this book in
preparation for his voyage on the Ka-imi-loa. Published in 1867, this is an account of Lamont's copra-trading voyage in 1852
to the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, Tahiti, Huahine, and Rarotonga, which included being marooned on Tongareva (Penrhyn) for a year
as the first white resident of that atoll.
- Wanderings Among South Sea Savages And
in Borneo and the Philippines (1902) by H. Wilfred Walker -- again available
here in its entirety [325K] courtesy of Project Gutenberg
-- recounts the 20-year travels of a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, based
on Walker's letters home. I have no indication that my grandfather either knew of
or had read this book, but it is an interesting period piece about how the South
Pacific was perceived by outsiders at the end of the nineteenth century.
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