Parting with Old Jewels

My interest in Richard Halliburton goes back to High School at Garland, NE where I wrote a couple Book Reports on his travels and adventures. I remember of being particularly  impressed with his description of swimming the Panama Canal and paying his "tonage" at the same rate/pound as ships. Other attractions such as the Matterhorn and Taj Mahal have always been of interest because of his stories about them. When we began to buy and sell on eBay, I took advantage of the opportunity to acquire all of his books: "The Royal Road to Romance", "The Glorious Adventure", "New Worlds to Conquer", "The Flying Carpet", "Seven League Boots", "Complete Book of Marvels", and "His Story of His Life's Adventures".  The last book is a compilation of letters that he wrote home to his parents in which he gave them detailed descriptions of his travels. He was born in 1900, graduated from Princeton and set out to be a Traveler, Writer and Lecturer. He was very successful financially and in 1938 announced his last adventure. He would build a Chinese junk in Hong Kong called the Sea Dragon and, with a captain and a full crew, sail the 9,000 miles to San Francisco in time for the Golden Gate International Exposition in the spring of 1939. 

In the early spring of 1939, the Sea Dragon left Hong Kong. Two  weeks later all had gone well to Midway. On March 24, the liner President Coolidge, 1,800 miles west of Hawaii indicating storms. The Navy combed 108,000 square miles and found nothing. At age 39 he received his wish to never die in bed. I plan to keep the last book but will gift all the others to the Seward Memorial Library tomorrow. I have enjoyed just having them over the years. One, "The Glorious Adventure" was re backed by the Houchen Bindery in 1966. Another, "Seven League Boots" has a fancy stamp in the opening page indicating it was owned by Paul H. Figard, a brother to the English HS teacher who introduced me to Halliburton.