author
Martin Johnson
1884–1937
Adventure, filmmaking, and travel writing all came together in his work, which brought distant places and wildlife to popular audiences in the early 20th century. Best known for expeditions with his wife, Osa Johnson, he turned firsthand journeys into vivid books, photographs, and documentary films.
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, Martin Elmer Johnson was an American adventurer, photographer, filmmaker, and author whose career grew out of a restless love of travel. As a young man he joined Jack London's voyage on the Snark, an experience that later fed into his writing and helped shape his taste for expedition storytelling.
Johnson became widely known through the trips he made with Osa Johnson, whom he married in 1910. Together they traveled in the South Seas, Borneo, and Africa, recording wildlife and local communities through photographs, films, lectures, and books. His published works include Through the South Seas with Jack London and Cannibal-land: Adventures with a Camera in the New Hebrides, books that reflect the excitement and attitudes of their era.
He died in 1937 after a plane crash in California. Today he is remembered as part of the Martin and Osa Johnson partnership, a team that helped bring expedition narratives and early wildlife filmmaking to a broad American audience.