Frances and Ainslie Conway were real people who lived on the Galápagos Islands: Santiago (1937–1938), Floreana (1938–1941), and again on Santiago (1946–1950). Frances wrote two memoirs about their time there, The Enchanted Islands and Return to the Island, published in 1948 and 1952, respectively.
Frances’s memoirs reveal little beyond her daily tribulations living on the islands and say nothing about any espionage activities, though the idea that they were spies has been suggested by others before me. I based the characters on Frances’s and Ainslie’s birth and death dates, and Frances’s memoirs, which are dedicated to Rosaline Fisher. Everything else is pure invention.
Throughout, I tried to stay generally true to historical events (though I may have moved a sea voyage or two) except when they conflicted with the narrative (I am a novelist first, and a mediocre historian). President Roosevelt really did visit the Galápagos, and there was indeed a military base there during World War II.
The Galápagos Islands are an enchanted place, and their human history is fascinating. As Darwin put it, “this archipelago…seems to be a little world within itself.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to thank the usual suspects:
Sheila and Jim Amend
Anthony Amend and Nicole Hynson
Adelman Cousins
Terra Chalberg
Ronit Wagman
Nan A. Talese
Dan Meyer
Carolyn Hessel
Margot Grover and Mark Bailie
Lynn and Steven Perkins
Francesca Segal
Irina Reyn
Nora Gomringer
The Delta Schmeltas: Sheri Joseph, Dika Lam, Lara JK Wilson, and Margo Rabb
The following Galapágueños (and honorary citizens) provided lodging and advice:
Kerrie Littlejohn
Magno Bennett
Ros Cameron
Claudio Cruz
Aura Cruz
Erika Wittmer
Linda Cayot
Dayna Goldfine
The following organizations provided support:
Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers
Writers Omi at Ledig House
Paragraph Workspace for Writers
The Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature
The Jewish Book Council
The Professional Staff Congress and the City University of New York
Lynn Perkins, Jamie Chatel, and Vice Admiral Jim Perkins, USN (Ret) provided expertise and research help.
Valuable information was obtained from John Woram’s wonderful website: www.galapagos.to as well as his fascinating book Charles Darwin Slept Here, which I recommend highly to those who want more information about the human history of the Galápagos.
William Baehr of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York, and Melinda Hayes of the Hancock Foundation Archive at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles were very helpful, as were the resources at the New York Public Library.
Other sources consulted include:
The Enchanted Islands by Ainslie and Frances Conway
Return to the Island by Ainslie and Frances Conway
Satan Came to Eden: A Survivor’s Account of the “Galapagos Affair” by Dore Stauch
Floreana: A Woman’s Pilgrimage to the Galapagos by Margret Wittmer
The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (film)
The private letters of Marilyn Hynson (1928–2015)
And thank you, Frances, for living and recording your remarkable experience.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Allison Amend, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is the author of the Independent Publisher Book Award–winning short-story collection Things That Pass for Love and the novels Stations West (a finalist for the 2011 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the Oklahoma Book Award) and A Nearly Perfect Copy. She lives in New York.
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