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Gibbings, Robert - Tahiti and Iorana
Identifier
013219
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Although much of his time was taken up by running the press, Gibbings did work for other publishers. He illustrated The Charm of Birds by Viscount Grey of Falloden (1927), and A Mirror for Witches by Esther Forbes (1928). When he sent the blocks to Houghton he added in his letter:
Next time you give me a job, for God's sake send me to the South Seas – I'm sick of English fogs.
They were so impressed by the success of this book that they commissioned Gibbings to illustrate with wood engravings a book set in Tahiti that would be written by James Norman Hall, the author of Mutiny on the Bounty.
Gibbings leapt at the chance and in 1929 he set out for Tahiti. He completed the wood engravings, but Hall did not complete the text. However, two books did emerge from this visit, The Seventh Man (1930), written, illustrated and published at the Golden Cockerel Press by Gibbings, and Iorana (1932), a semi-fictitious account by Gibbings of his time in Tahiti. Houghton published a bowdlerised version, and Duckworth the full version.
A description of the experience
