Gordon MacCreagh (1889 in

Perth, Indiana Perth is an unincorporated community in Dick Johnson Township, Clay County, Indiana. It is part of the Terre Haute Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Perth is located at . History Perth had its start in the year 1870 by the building of the ...

Ellis, Doug. ''The Best of Adventure, Volume 2 - 1913-1914''. Black Dog Books, 2012. (p.13,18-9). – 1953) was an American writer. MacCreagh was the son of Scottish parents, possibly born in Perth, Indiana in 1889 while his father, an anthropologist, was visiting the United States to study Native Americans.Michael J. Lannoo, ''This Land Is Your Land: The Story of Field Biology in America''. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2018. (pp. 238-9). However, according to MacCreagh's biography - ''Indiana MacCreagh'' () by Roderick Heather, it is much more likely that he was born and educated in Scotland and later studied in Paris and Germany. Mistakenly believing he had killed a fellow student in a German sabre duel, he fled to Southeast Asia, where he lived for several years. MacCreagh worked in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Ne ...

, the Malay Islands, Tibet, China and

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, where he collected animal specimens. He then travelled to Africa where he captured wild animals for British and US zoos. MacCreagh arrived in New York in 1911, where he later began to write fiction. He wrote several short adventure stories for magazines such as ''

Argosy Argosy or The Argosy may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Argosy'' (magazine), an American pulp magazine 1882–1978 and revived 1990–1994, 2004–2006 * ''Argosy'' (UK magazine), three British magazines * Argosy spaceship in ''Escap ...

'', ''

Adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extr ...

'' and ''

Short Stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

''. Robinson, Frank M. & Davidson, Lawrence. ''Pulp Culture - The Art of Fiction Magazines''. Collectors Press Inc 2007 (p.39). He travelled in South America on the

Mulford Expedition The Mulford Biological Exploration of the Amazon Basin was a scientific expedition to the Amazon conducted in 1921. It was organized by Henry Hurd Rusby, who at age 64, was a well known explorer, a professor at Columbia University, and a staff membe ...

. His book ''White Waters and Black'' published 1926 is an account of the expedition. He also travelled to

Abyssinia The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historical ...

with his wife in 1927, on an expedition to locate the

Ark of the Covenant The Ark of the Covenant,; Ge'ez: also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, is an alleged artifact believed to be the most sacred relic of the Israelites, which is described as a wooden chest, covered in pure gold, with an ...

. His account was serialised in ''Adventure'' and published as a book ''The Last of Free Africa''. After the book's publication, MacCreagh was made a "Knight of the Empire" by Emperor

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...

. He revisited Ethiopia several times and became a friend of Haile Selassie. MacCreagh served as a US Navy pilot in World War I and volunteered for special service for the US and British armed forces in World War II. It is possible that MacCreagh was the inspiration for the fictional character of Indiana Jones. MacCreagh died in Florida in 1953 of abdominal cancer.

Works

Non-fiction

Travel books

* ''White Waters and Black'' (The Century Co.,1926) * ''The Last of Free Africa'' (The Century Co., 1928)

Other

* "Adventure and a moral". Written for ''Call for Adventure'' edited by

Robert Spiers Benjamin Robert Spiers Benjamin (17 August 1917 – 20 September 2009) was a 20th-century journalist. He was a founding member of the Overseas Press Club. Following his death, the club named an award in his memory for 'Best reporting in any medium on Lati ...

Novels

* ''The Inca's Ransom'' (Chelsea House, 1926, reprinted from ''Adventure'') * ''Poisonous Mist'' (Chelsea House, 1927, reprinted from ''Adventure'') * ''Dr Muncing, Exorcist'' (Chelsea House)

Short stories

*''Jungle Business'' (1925). *''The Adventures of Jehannum Smith''. Black Dog Books, 2013. *''The Lost End of Nowhere: The Complete Tales of Kingi Bwana, Volume 1''.

Altus Press Altus Press is a publisher of works primarily related to the pulp magazines from the 1910s to the 1950s. History Founded in 2006 by Matthew Moring, Altus Press publishes collections primarily focussed on series characters, although they also publ ...

, 2014. *''Unprofitable Ivory: The Complete Tales of Kingi Bwana, Volume 2.'' Altus Press, 2014. *''Black Drums Talking: The Complete Tales of Kingi Bwana, Volume 3''. Altus Press, 2014. *''Blood and Steel: The Complete Tales of Kingi Bwana, Volume 4.'' Altus Press, 2014. 147 short stories in pulp magazines

Adventure (magazine) ''Adventure'' was an American pulp magazine that was first published in November 1910Robinson, Frank M. & Davidson, Lawrence ''Pulp Culture – The Art of Fiction Magazines''. Collectors Press Inc 2007 (p. 33-48). by the Ridgway company, an ...

, Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacCreagh, Gordon American short story writers 1880s births British emigrants to the United States British people in colonial India 1953 deaths American male short story writers People from Clay County, Indiana Pulp fiction writers 20th-century American male writers