 Ask ten randomly-selected people who Jim Corbett was and most likely you’ll get nine shoulder shrugs. The other person might respond, “Say, wasn’t he the famous boxer in the late 1800s?” Although there was a heavyweight boxer by the name of Jim Corbett, not many people know about Jim Corbett the hunter and naturalist who lived in India most of his life. And yet, the latter Corbett wrote five books about his daring hunts for man-eating tigers and leopards as well as about India, all published by Oxford University Press during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
I became hooked on Jim Corbett when I read his first book, Man-eaters of Kumaon, in 1977. I’m not a hunter, but I was fascinated with Corbett’s courage and perseverance when he tracked and destroyed these man-killers. Two man-eaters had each killed over 400 humans before Corbett put an end to their savage tyranny. Jim didn’t do it for money or acclaim; in fact, he always asked government officials to rescind any bounty before he went after these beasts. Rather, these were missions of mercy. He risked his life to help native Indians rid themselves of a menace so terror-inducing that they huddled in their huts afraid to venture outside to find food, tend to their crops or livestock, or even to use the public toilet.
Not many people could muster the courage it would take to go after a man-eating tiger or leopard in a remote forest with nothing more than a rifle and a few native porters for company. No sir, especially after seeing the savaged remains of human victims left behind by the man-eater. Corbett mentioned in one of his stories that the pitiful remains of one victim would make a stone cry. He knew that his chances of returning alive from these hunts were 50/50 at best, yet he agreed to do it anyway because of his love for the natives. And this is what I admire most about him. A website dedicated to Jim Corbett titled “The Corbett Study Group” can be accessed by clicking here.
Several books have been written about Corbett’s life and adventures over the years, including my story: Jim Corbett, Master of the Jungle, published by Safari Press in 1998. I wanted to sing Corbett’s praises in a different light, something unique from the other biographies, so I created dialog and some events to give the story more realism and drama. While researching material on Jim’s life, I became intrigued by the person who was most responsible for Jim’s admirable character traits…his mother. The more I read about her and her life in India, the more I realized that I had to tell her story.
Mary Jane (Prussia) Corbett lived her entire life in India under the British Raj. She endured enough hardship and tragedy for two lifetimes: traveled cross-country with her mother when she was only a child; first married at age 14; lost her husband to sword-wielding rebels during the great mutiny, while fleeing to safety with her three small children; remarried and moved to another location in India; miraculously survived a landslide that killed 151 of her neighbors; lost her second husband prematurely, forcing her to defy convention and find employment in order to support her large family; and finally, lost her youngest son at age 20 to illness. Despite the scorn she received from her own countrymen for being domiciled (born in India) and becoming a “box wallah” (rental agent), she managed to maintain her dignity and provide for her family. More than anything else, she longed for acceptance from her countrymen. Eventually, through Jim’s patriotism and his success as a businessman and hunter, Mary Jane was finally able to achieve fulfillment.
You can read an excerpt from Chapter 8 (Agra Falls to the Rebels) of my story by clicking here. The excerpt begins immediately after Mary Jane witnesses horrible atrocities against her neighbors by the rebels, then takes refuge in the hidden cellar of her house. Additionally, by clicking here, you can see a map of Northern India where the story takes place. Maps of Delhi and Cawnpore (circa 1860) are also contained in the link, which are two locations in the story that were directly affected by the mutiny.
This book, Woman of the Raj: The Life of Mary Jane Corbett, is published by Llumina Press. It can be ordered in hard cover or paperback by clicking here, by phoning Llumina Press at 1-866-229-9244 or accessing their website at www.llumina.com, accessing Amazon.com’s website at www.amazon.com, or through the Barnes and Noble website at www.bn.com. It can also be ordered through any retail bookstore by using the ISBN: 1-59526-612-7 (for hard cover edition), or 1-59526-611-9 (paperback edition).
Similar to my biography on Jim Corbett, this story is also dramatized; dialog as well as some characters and events were created. As much as I made every effort to stick to the facts about Mary Jane’s life, there were some gaps that needed to be filled. Moreover, I need to caution that the story contains some atrocities committed during the mutiny. A few events are brutally graphic as an attempt to provide the reader an accurate feel for what Mary Jane and other Europeans endured during the rebellion.
One final note: permission was granted by Oxford University Press to include two of Jim Corbett’s man-eater hunting episodes in this story that were excluded in my first book.
Remember, reading books is good for the soul – it enlightens, educates, inspires, and entertains us.
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