author
Martin Johnson
1884–1937
A restless adventurer who helped turn early wildlife travel into popular storytelling, this explorer-author carried readers from the South Seas to Africa through books, photographs, and film. His work with Osa Johnson brought distant landscapes and animal life to a wide American audience in the 1910s through 1930s.
2 Audiobooks
Through the South Seas with Jack London
by Martin Johnson
Cannibal-land: Adventures with a camera in the New Hebrides
by Martin Johnson
About the author
Born in 1884, he became known as an American adventurer, photographer, filmmaker, naturalist, and author. Early in life he joined Jack London's voyage on the Snark, an experience that helped launch the travel writing and expedition work he became famous for.
With his wife and collaborator Osa Johnson, he traveled through the South Pacific, Borneo, and Africa, producing books and films that introduced many readers and moviegoers to wildlife and faraway places. Their work mixed adventure, popular science, and showmanship, and helped make the camera safari a recognizable part of American culture.
He died in 1937, but the stories and images he created remained part of the lasting public fascination with exploration and animal life. For readers today, his books offer a vivid glimpse of an era when travel writing, photography, and documentary filmmaking were all still taking shape.