White Gold: The Diary of a Rubber Cutter in the Amazon 1906 - 1916

White Gold tells the story of a young American, John Hungjohann, who struggled for survival as a rubber cutter at the height of the rubber boom in the early years of this century. Editor Sir Ghillean prance, a leading expert on the rainforest, enhances the text with his own contemporary photographs and identifies the fungi, plants and animals mentioned in the pages of the diary. The diaries are especially poignant now since the rubber cutters are fighting to preserve something of the original forest against the ravages of the indiscriminate destruction which still ignores the true wealth of the region – its almost incomprehensible variety of species. It is a tale of humanity and the natural order working together in the midst of greed and ignorance. Ghillean Prance enhances the text with his own contemporary photographs and identifies the fungi, plants and animals which are mentioned in the pages of the diaries.