The Sea and the Jungle

One rainy morning in the winter of 1909, a man with an altogether average look about him quit his job at the London Morning Leader, kissed his wife and children goodbye, and took a train to Swansea in Wales, where he talked his way aboard a freighter bound for the upper reaches of the Amazon. Three years later, Tomlinson published a book about his adventures. This book made him famous.

“The Sea and the Jungle,” wrote David McCord, “is an invitation to a new experience. It is more than that: ...