FLYNN ERROL Autograph Manuscript unsigned

Sale 2077 - Lot 56

Price Realized: $ 8,050

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 600 - $ 800

FLYNN, ERROL. Autograph Manuscript, unsigned, a brief diary kept while in New Guinea, written in pencil. 30 pages, oblong 8vo wrappers; wrappers detached, creased. New Guinea, 13-20 January 1933

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Additional Details

An unusual item from Flynn's pre-acting days. Born in Australia, Flynn spent several years in New Guinea working various jobs, including managing a plantation. This journal recounts a week's march to various villages to hire young boys and includes descriptions of missionaries and others. The first entry includes a description of the missionaries at Saddleberg: "I spotted a pretty girl when I came in today so I'll have a shave tonight. Three day's growth is no good even for a recruiter to wear . . . These missionaries treat their women folk like dirt." After a two day march inland Flynn reaches Fio village and convinces the chief to allow him to take a boy: "Big talk talk last night. The chief and his two tultuls came along and we discussed everything under the sun including the late war which appears to cause them as much amusement as astonishment. That all the whitemen would indulge in extensive fighting among themselves . . ." After gathering 13 boys from the village he is given a stern talking to by one "old greybeard" who told him he "must not sell any of them & when their time had finished must bring them back." The journal ends rather abruptly, but includes what appears to be a listing of the boys he has taken at the end.