author
Sydney Greenbie
1889–1960
A widely traveled American writer who turned firsthand experience into lively books about Asia, travel, and history. His work ranges from early studies of Japan and the Pacific to later historical storytelling written with his wife, Marjorie Barstow Greenbie.
1 Audiobook
The Pacific Triangle
by Sydney Greenbie
About the author
Born in Dakota Territory in 1889, he built a career as a travel and history writer with a strong interest in Asia and the Pacific. Sources from the Indiana University archives and the Maine State Library describe him as a lifelong world traveler who went to Japan in 1917, taught English in Kobe, wrote for magazines including Asia, and later worked as an editor and travel-program organizer.
His books include Japan, Real and Imaginary, The Pacific Triangle, and other nonfiction shaped by travel, observation, and cultural history. Archival and library records also note his work in wartime Far Eastern affairs and his connection to educational travel ventures such as the Floating University and Traversity.
In later years he also wrote with Marjorie Barstow Greenbie, including Hoof Beats to Heaven. He died in 1960, leaving behind a body of work that reflects curiosity about the wider world and a gift for turning research and travel into readable narrative.