Lewis R. Freeman

Lewis R. Freeman

Lewis Ransome Freeman (October 4 1878 - November 6 1960) was an American explorer, journalist and war correspondent who wrote over twenty books chronicling his many travels, as well as numerous articles.

Freeman was born in Genoa Junction, Wisconsin, the son of Otto Freeman and Maria (Clary) Freeman, and moved with his family to Pasadena, California as a boy. He attended Stanford University, where he earned letters in football, baseball, tennis and track, and graduated in 1898. Remarkably, while a student at Stanford, he also served as coach of the University of Southern California's football team in 1897 (the team's schedule included games on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day), compiling a record of 5-1 and outscoring opponents 100-18; the only blemish was an 18-0 road loss on Christmas to a San Diego YMCA team, USC's second game ever outside of Los Angeles County. (USC teams were called the Methodists before becoming the Trojans in 1912.) Freeman was the team's first coach since its initial season in 1888, and brought the players new, standard uniforms with "USC" on the front and all the other elements common for the period. Afterward, USC football teams again played without a coach until 1901.

After graduating from Stanford, Freeman spent the years 1899 to 1912 traveling throughout the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands, although in his various returns to Pasadena he continued his athletic endeavours, winning the 1903 Ojai Valley Tennis Tournament in both men's singles [http://www.ojaitourney.org/trophymensopensingles.htm] and doubles, also finishing as doubles runnerup in 1908. [http://www.ojaitourney.org/trophymod.htm] In 1905 he served as a war correspondent in the Russo-Japanese War, and in 1910 he was a member of a commission of Pacific Coast chambers of commerce which traveled to China. During World War I he was a correspondent with the British, French, and Italian armies from 1915 to 1917, and he became a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1917-18. He was a correspondent attached to the Grand Fleet late in the war, and was a staff member for the Allied Naval Armistice Commission which traveled to Germany in 1918.

After WWI, Freeman focused on writing, turning out nine books between 1918 and 1922, and another each year through 1928. In 1925 he was a special correspondent with the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet on its cruise to Australasia; he again served as a special naval correspondent covering Fleet maneuvers in 1929, 1932 and 1935. In 1923 he was boatman and photographer for a U.S. Geological Survey expedition through the Grand Canyon, and the same year he illustrated with photographs a special edition of Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Feet of the Young Men".

In 1930-31, Freeman was part of an airplane and motorboat expedition to Central and South America, and in 1933 he embarked on a series of airplane flights exloring the coasts and interior of South America. In 1936 he took part in cruises to the Juan Fernández Islands and Tierra del Fuego, as well as an expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon and Ecuador. In 1938 he undertook an expedition to the highlands of southern Mexico and Guatemala. In 1939 he took part in a cruise to the Galápagos Islands and the west coast of Colombia, and in 1941 he explored Bolivia, Peru and Brazil.

Freeman was a member of the Explorers Club in New York City, but also regularly traveled to his family home in Pasadena. He retired to Pasadena in 1955, and died there at age 82.

Books

*"Many Fronts" (1918)
*"Stories of the Ships" (1919)
*"Sea Hounds" (1919)
*"To Kiel in the Hercules" (1919)
*"In the Tracks of the Trades: The Account of a Fourteen Thousand Mile Yachting Cruise to the Hawaiis, Marquesas, Societies, Samoas and Fijis" (1920)
*"Hell's Hatches" (1921)
*"Down the Columbia" (1921)
*"Down the Yellowstone" (1922)
*"When Cassi Blooms" (1922)
*"The Colorado River - Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" (1923)
*"Down the Grand Canyon" (1924)
*"On the Roof of the Rockies" (1925)
*"By Water Ways to Gotham" (1926)
*"Waterways of Westward Wandering" (1927)
*"The Nearing North" (1928)
*"Afloat and Aflight in the Caribbean" (1932)
*"South America - Airwise and Otherwise" (1933)
*"Marquesan Nocturne" (1936)
*"Discovering South America" (1937)
*"Many Rivers" (1937)
*"Brazil, Land of Tomorrow" (1942)

References

*Fletcher, Russell Holmes, ed. (1941). "Who's Who in California 1942-43: A Biographical Reference Work of Notable Living Men and Women of California". Los Angeles: Who's Who, p. 317.
*"Lewis Ransom Freeman, Explorer, Author, Dies." "Los Angeles Times", November 8, 1960. p. IV-7.
*PDFlink| [http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/usc/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/04-mg-137-211.pdf 2004 USC Trojans Football Media Guide] |1.85 MiB

External links

* [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Lewis%20R.%20Freeman Works by Lewis R. Freeman] at Archive.org, scanned books viewable online or PDF download, audio adaptations, etc.
*cite book
title=
author=
year=
publisher=
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?lr=&q=inauthor%3ALewis+R.+inauthor%3AFreeman&btnG=Search+Books&as_brr=1
at Google Books, scanned books viewable online or PDF download


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Freeman (surname) — Freeman is a surname, and may refer to:* Alan Freeman (1927–2006) Australian born DJ * Alfred Percy Freeman (1888–1965) Kent cricketer, only bowler to take 300 wickets in a season * Antonio Freeman (born 1972), American football player * Ben… …   Wikipedia

  • Freeman Spogli & Co. — Infobox Company company company name = Freeman Spogli Co. company type = Private Ownership founder = Richard Riordan, Bradford Freeman and Ronald P. Spogli foundation = 1983 location = industry = Private Equity products = Private equity funds,… …   Wikipedia

  • Freeman–Sheldon syndrome — Freeman Sheldon syndrome Classification and external resources ICD 9 759.89 …   Wikipedia

  • Lewis McGugan —  Spielerinformationen Voller Name Lewis Shay McGugan Geburtstag 25. Oktober 1988 Gebur …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Lewis Sperry — (* 23. Januar 1848 in East Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut; † 22. Januar 1922 ebenda) war ein US amerikanischer Politiker. Zwischen 1891 und 1895 vertrat er den ersten Wahlbezirk des Bundesstaates Connecticut im US Repräsentantenhaus …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Lewis Freeman Mott — Lewis Freeman Mott, Ph.D. (1863 November 20, 1941) was an American English scholar, born in New York and educated at the City College (S.B., 1883) and at Columbia (Ph.D., 1896). He taught at City College where he became professor in 1897 and from …   Wikipedia

  • Lewis B. Sturges — Lewis Burr Sturges (* 15. März 1763 in Fairfield, Connecticut; † 30. März 1844 in Norwalk, Ohio) war ein US amerikanischer Politiker. Zwischen 1805 und 1817 vertrat er den Bundesstaat Connecticut im US Repräsentantenhaus. Werdegang Lewis… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Lewis McGugan — Si …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Freeman-Sheldon syndrome — Infobox Disease Name = Freeman Sheldon syndrome Caption = DiseasesDB = 31817 ICD10 = ICD9 = ICD9|759.89 ICDO = OMIM = 193700 MedlinePlus = eMedicineSubj = eMedicineTopic = MeshID = Freeman Sheldon syndrome (FSS), also termed distal arthrogryposis …   Wikipedia

  • Lewis, Lewis County, New York — There is another Town of Lewis in Essex County, New York. Infobox Settlement official name = Lewis, New York settlement type = Town nickname = motto = imagesize = image caption = image |pushpin pushpin label position = pushpin map caption… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”