Book Review: Jungle of Stone by William Carlsen

Jungle of Stone
The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, and the Discover of the Lost Civilization of the Maya
by William Carlsen

Every year I buy a membership from a local bookstore, Joseph-Beth.  A number of years ago my wife bought me the first one as a Christmas present and it came with four $5 vouchers, one each for January, February, March, and April of the following year.  I've renewed it each year and since the first one was bought in December I get the same voucher deal each year.  If you're local to Cincinnati or Lexington the deal is fantastic, because for a $25 membership you get a $25 voucher in the bookstore's restaurant (Bronte Bistro) as well as an extra 10% off staff picks, and a $10 voucher every time you spend $100.  Anyway, each year four the first four months of the year I always buy at least one book from Joseph-Beth to make sure that I'm using my voucher.  Sometimes new books I want to read are coming out and the timing is great, whereas other times I hunt their bargain shelves to make a purchase really worth it (on February 29 of this year I bought a bargain book that ended up being about $2 including tax).  In 2019 I found Jungle of Stone on the bargain shelf at Joseph-Beth for only $7.99.  I have found Mayan civilizations interesting for quite a while, and on our honeymoon cruise we got to visit Mayan ruins at Tulum in the Yucatan peninsula.  I bought the book on April 4 and had finished it ten days later, so I can definitely recommend it as an engaging read.

The narrative tells the story of how the widespread Mayan ruins of Central America came to the attention of the wider world in the nineteenth century.  The two main protagonists of the tale are American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood.  The book includes several sections and a number of chapters that cover the expeditions, but also contains two sections about the background of each of these men before they met.

Interspersed throughout the text are a number of black and white reproductions of Catherwood's pictures of Mayan ruins that wonderfully complement the text.

There is also an insert section of glossy pages that includes a number of color versions of Catherwood's illustrations taken from his folio edition of View of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatán published in 1844.

I own at least one other book about Stephens and Catherwood, but haven't read it yet, so this was my first in depth dive into their story. I enjoyed the pace of the book and the details included.  I do have a minor complaint about the notes.  While the notes are all properly noted in the text (I do not like books where you only find out there is a note by flipping back to the notes section for a particular page/chapter) I wish that some of the informative notes were included as footnotes instead of always being relegated to the back of the book.  However, that likely won't detract from the enjoyment of the book for most people.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Summary: An engaging narrative covering the careers of Stephens and Catherwood who brought the Mayan ruins of Central American so a wider audience.
Technical: Trade paperback, 528 pages, includes selected bibliography, notes, and index.  Several color artwork/photos included in center section, black and white illustrations throughout the text along with some current photographs for comparison.

~Matt

PS You can hear some from the author in this promotional video he put together to help advertise the book.