In the Islands: On the Road to Adventure Book

Once a marine, always a marine, and once an adventurer, always an adventurer--as exemplified by the life of Edward Leahy.

During World War II, Leahy made four combat landings with the Fourth Marine Division in the island-hopping campaign in the Central Pacific. After the war ended, he tried very hard to fit himself back into the cozy suburban world from which he had sprung. But no longer afraid of the things he was supposed to be afraid of, and driven by an omnivorous curiosity about the world, fitting in wasn't the easiest option.

Leahy quit his job as a corporate trainee one day, went down to the waterfront in New York, and signed on as a cabin boy on a Danish freighter. For the next ten years he ran hog wild. He drifted between Europe, America, and the Caribbean. He had some good times and some that were not so good. He spent a winter skiing in Austria, and a summer lying on the beach in Majorca. He climbed Mt. Blanc, and he had a gorgeous affair with a blonde fascinator in Spain. He served during the Korean War as an officer in the navy, and worked on films for John Huston and others. He also sold trinkets in the streets of London, did time on skid row in Los Angeles, and hitchhiked back and forth across America half a dozen times. He was hungry in Madrid, and Paris, and Denver, and wrote a lot of stuff that nobody ever wanted to buy.

In middle age Leahy finally learned how to make the compromises that are essential if one is to live within organized society. How he manages to find peace within himself is the essence of this story.

About the Author

Edward Leahy retired from East Carolina University as a Professor Emeritus of Political Geography. He lives near Seattle in the foothills of the Cascades. He is co-author, with Raymond E. Crist, of Venezuela: Search for a Middle Ground (Van Nostrand, 1969), and has published in many journals, including The Geographical Magazine (London), FOCUS, The Geographic Review, The Alpine Journal, The Professional Geographer, and The Explorers Journal.