Kickstarter

I just can't be kept away from Melville Jacoby's story.

Thanks once more to those of you who already tried to back me here on Kickstarter. As you probably know by now, if you pledged to support my campaign you WERE NOT CHARGED because, I didn't reach my $25,000 goal here on Kickstarter. But if you still want to help tell Melville Jacoby's story you have a new option. 

To help out, visit: lascheratlarge.com/melville and decide how much you want to donate. It should be self-explanatory where you can make a secure donation, but feel free to ask me any questions you have.

I'm now using WePay to process payments directly on my Web site. Just so it's clear, you don't need an account with WePay to donate, but you do need to make a new donation there if you still want your money to go toward my telling Mel's story.

I'm ready to dig right back into this project. In addition to continuing to pursue fundraising from the community, I'm planning to pitch literary agents and others in the publishing industry about Mel's story. If you have any contacts with agents or acquisitions editors who may want to hear about this project please put them in touch with me, or tell me how I can contact them. 

Your support continues to ensure that I can keep focused on this project, and I'll also welcome anything you can do to share the project with others. Again, the link is lascheratlarge.com/melville. I'll still be tweeting updates about Melville Jacoby using the hashtag #meljacks. I'll also use my blog to continue to put out updates like the ones I've had here about what my research turns up.

I'm still tweaking my web site to include these updates and everything else related to this project, but even before I'm done doing so you can support the project. You'll notice that I've kept a few of the same incentives and donation levels, but I've also streamlined things a little bit (I'll still happily organize a once-in-a-lifetime rail journey for one or two special donors). Make sure to let me know when you donate what incentive you want.

Once again, if you still want to pledge your support, remember that you weren't charged here at Kickstarter. To contribute, you can use the secure form at lascheratlarge.com/melville or make your donation directly at WePay (but you don't have to sign up with WePay to support me).

Finally, I don't want to discount the role this Kickstarter campaign played, even though I didn't reach my fundraising goal. As I mentioned previously, my campaign here sparked widespread attention to this project, focused my attention and energized my effort to make Mel's story a priority. So I'm very appreciative of everyone who helped make all of this happen.

Thanks, and I'll see you on my web site!

-Bill

I'm reading some of Mel's correspondence as I prepare for the final push of my Kickstarter project. If you've been thinking of backing the project but haven't yet, please do so now by visiting the Kickstarter link and clicking "back this project now." As I only have three more days to reach my goal. It's all or nothing: If I'm even a few dollars short I won't get funded (but my backers won't get charged, either, so there's nothing to lose), so even just the price of your next beer might make the difference. 

As I make this push, I've been reading some of Mel's correspondence, and I found this little snippet that so well illustrates just how global World War II really was.

"...You presume immediately that these foreigners are some of the Russians you have heard practically fill the streets of the Kansu capital. But they aren't Russians -- only more Norweigan youngsters. The third batch, in fact, coming through Moscow from Stockholm on their way to Canada and RAF training."

This quote comes from a July 11, 1941 letter from Melville Jacoby to David Hulbard, then Time Magazine's news bureau chief. It describe's Mel's visit to Lanchow during a visit to Northwestern China with Carl and Shelley Mydans.

What remains of the S.S. Melville Jacoby

I'm also in Los Angeles doing research and visiting some locations of significance to Melville Jacoby's early life. That also meant a visit to the wreckage of the ship once known as the S.S. Melville Jacoby was in order. Two friends of mine and I endured the unexpectedly long hike (more accurately described as a six-mile scramble around the rocky shore along the base of the Palos Verdes Peninsula) to find the ship's rusted remains.

Admittedly, as I previously discussed, the wreck is but a tangent to Mel's story, but a reminder of how historic artifacts linger in unexpected ways for decades, often far removed from their original context. Here are some more pictures of the wreck and the hike to visit it. These are just a hint of the sort of lengths to which I'll go to bring you a unique story. They're also fun, even if they don't have much to do directly with Mel's life. And don't forget, if you pledge $10,000, your unique tour of Melville Jacoby's world might include a stop here.

The view from the beginning of the Flathead Rock Trail (note: Though beautiful, don't take this trail if you don't want to walk for miles along loose, often jagged rocks to reach the wreckage).

Equipment left on the beach after the shipwreck. 

A recently deceased ray found on the shore along the way to the shipwreck.

A closeup of the largest piece of wreckage still accessible on the shore.

Me on top of the wreckage.

Remote control models of World War II aircraft being flown on the Palos Verdes peninsula were an apt accompaniment to my trip given the era during which Melville Jacoby lived and worked.

This path above a drainage pipe, while steep, provides much quicker access to the ship's wreckage.

Seventy years ago, yesterday, a small freighter, the Dona Nati, arrived at the Port of Brisbane. Aboard were a handful of Americans, mostly journalists, who'd just spent four often harrowing, often tense months at sea. Most of those months were spent aboard an even smaller vessel. Sailing at night and hiding, they'd dodged Japanese submarines, evaded cruisers on intercept courses and eluded dive bombers as they escaped the Philipines. Among the last to leave Manila on Dec. 31, 1941, just before the Japanese took control of that city, they'd spent time in the jungles and foxholes of Bataan before finally escaping Corrigedor aboard the Princesa de Cebu, the small blockade runner that saved their lives. With them, they brought some of the first accounts of the dire circumstances faced by under-supplied American and Filipino forces faced those first savage months of World War II.

These were, of course, the last months of Melville Jacoby's short but fascinating life. 

With only a short time remaining for you to back this story here on Kickstarter (thank you if you already have), I thought I'd read some excerpts of a letter Mel wrote to David Hulbard from the Island of Cebu, along with some glimpses of a pamphlet Stanford University prepared upon Mel's death. Among the images also included is a map that accompanied a story in the Saturday Evening Post about the escape and written by journalist Charles Van Landingham.

Enjoy the story, and don't forget to click "Back this Project" and share the link with others.

Thank you,

Bill