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Time-Lost
The Pathless Trail
A swashbuckling jungle adventure. The book has no illustrations or index.
- GenresFantasyScience Fiction
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1922
5 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Arthur O. Friel
47 books4 followersDuring much of career Arthur Olney Friel was one of the bestselling writers of pulp fiction in the United States.
Born in Detroit, Michigan,Friel, a 1909 Yale University graduate, had been the South American editor for the Associated Press which provided him with real-world experience. In 1922, he took a six-month trip down Venezuela's Orinoco River and its tributary, the Ventuari River. His travel account was published in 1924 as The River of Seven Stars.
After returning from the Venezuela trip, many of Friel's stories were set in that part of the world. He remained a popular writer of adventure stories throughout the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1930s, his short stories began appearing regularly in the various pulp magazines. His stories were almost always set in Venezuela.
The 1920s were his most productive time as a fiction writer, with an average of 5 appearances per year in Adventure during that time. The thirties were less productive, but he still managed to have one or two stories every year published in Adventure, except 1937, when he had none.
He seems to have stopped writing fiction by the time WW2 came around. The decline of the pulps may have been a contributing factor.
Arthur O. Friel died in Concord, New Hampshire in 1959 at the age of 73.
Born in Detroit, Michigan,Friel, a 1909 Yale University graduate, had been the South American editor for the Associated Press which provided him with real-world experience. In 1922, he took a six-month trip down Venezuela's Orinoco River and its tributary, the Ventuari River. His travel account was published in 1924 as The River of Seven Stars.
After returning from the Venezuela trip, many of Friel's stories were set in that part of the world. He remained a popular writer of adventure stories throughout the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1930s, his short stories began appearing regularly in the various pulp magazines. His stories were almost always set in Venezuela.
The 1920s were his most productive time as a fiction writer, with an average of 5 appearances per year in Adventure during that time. The thirties were less productive, but he still managed to have one or two stories every year published in Adventure, except 1937, when he had none.
He seems to have stopped writing fiction by the time WW2 came around. The decline of the pulps may have been a contributing factor.
Arthur O. Friel died in Concord, New Hampshire in 1959 at the age of 73.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 17, 2015
While reading a print edition of Friel's book Tiger River , I discovered The Pathless Trail at Project Gutenberg. This is the first of four titles Friel wrote telling the adventures of certain ex-soldiers in the jungles of South America in the years immediately following WWI. Neither book describes a fantasy world filled with weird creatures, but they both will transport you to the real world of a tropical jungle, and there are enough weird things in reality there to satisfy any adventurer.
Friel spent time exploring in Venezuela, writing an account of his journey in 1922. So he is very knowledgeable about his setting, and the animals and men that populate it. I enjoyed the way he shared that knowledge: one of our main characters, McKay, has been in the tropics before. But for the other two, it is a new world, and during one night watch we get to share their amazement at the sights they see: a tapir ridden into the river by an attacking jaguar, a giant anaconda sliding past the camp.
Our heroes have gone into the jungle to search for a lost man by the name of David Rand, who has inherited a fortune....if he is alive, of course. Along the way they meet a German man who helps them, but who also has plans of his own, both for the jungle and about that missing heir. There are cannibals to deal with, and battles to plan, and lots and lots of canoe paddling to do. Who will find Rand first? And who will die before they find him? Or after? Fast-paced and exciting, I enjoyed this book just as much as Tiger River. I hope I find the other two books in the series someday!
Oh, and speaking of jungle knowledge, did you know it is entirely possible to have your skull smashed by a Brazil-nut? Along the river one day, McKay and the men stop paddling long enough to investigate why a vulture flew away from a certain spot on the bank. They find the body of a man who had built himself a rough shelter under a tree. But his head was split open and at first our heroes think someone found him and killed him for the sport of it. But then their guide points to a Brazil-nut, saying that was obviously what had done the damage. I couldn't believe that, I had to Google. Turns out that Brazil-nuts grow in clusters inside a thick, hard pod about the size of a coconut. So it could happen! Be careful out there.
Friel spent time exploring in Venezuela, writing an account of his journey in 1922. So he is very knowledgeable about his setting, and the animals and men that populate it. I enjoyed the way he shared that knowledge: one of our main characters, McKay, has been in the tropics before. But for the other two, it is a new world, and during one night watch we get to share their amazement at the sights they see: a tapir ridden into the river by an attacking jaguar, a giant anaconda sliding past the camp.
Our heroes have gone into the jungle to search for a lost man by the name of David Rand, who has inherited a fortune....if he is alive, of course. Along the way they meet a German man who helps them, but who also has plans of his own, both for the jungle and about that missing heir. There are cannibals to deal with, and battles to plan, and lots and lots of canoe paddling to do. Who will find Rand first? And who will die before they find him? Or after? Fast-paced and exciting, I enjoyed this book just as much as Tiger River. I hope I find the other two books in the series someday!
Oh, and speaking of jungle knowledge, did you know it is entirely possible to have your skull smashed by a Brazil-nut? Along the river one day, McKay and the men stop paddling long enough to investigate why a vulture flew away from a certain spot on the bank. They find the body of a man who had built himself a rough shelter under a tree. But his head was split open and at first our heroes think someone found him and killed him for the sport of it. But then their guide points to a Brazil-nut, saying that was obviously what had done the damage. I couldn't believe that, I had to Google. Turns out that Brazil-nuts grow in clusters inside a thick, hard pod about the size of a coconut. So it could happen! Be careful out there.
August 15, 2025
The first in Friel's series of McKay, Ryan, and Knowlton novels, The Pathless Trail, proves that the author is a cut above the usual writers in the adventure genre. An earlier reading of his second book in the series, Tiger River, only reinforces that view. He is a step and more beyond Grey and Burroughs, just below Haggard and Forester, and clearly not in the same league as London. He is more on a par with John P. Marquand at his best--I'm thinking of Marquand's adventure set in South America, It's Loaded, Mr. Bauer. Friel's deftly drawn images of the rivers and jungles of Brazil and Peru stay vivid and memorable. It's a clear picture of a time and place now gone.
That time and place? South America in the early 1920s and a group of World War I veterans on an expedition to capture an American millionaire lost among Indian tribes in the Amazon. Whereas the more notable and "reputable" members of the Lost Generation of American writers went to Paris and Europe at this time--Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound, and Dos Passos--another set of less well regarded expat American writers followed Melville's, Stevenson's, and Jack London's footsteps in the South Seas, South America, and Far East--Nordhoff and Hall, Robert Dean Frisbie, and Frederick O'Brien.
Friel fits well among this latter group, despite being somewhat less "literary." As a genre writer for pulp fiction, his work is given little to introspection and psychological study, although it does pop through in a few instances but not for long. Friel's characters are all about catharsis, putting the reader into the shoes of his protagonists, giving them a virtual taste of the air, rivers, jungles, and skies of the tropics. At that, he is second to none.
About Friel personally, I cannot find much. How much firsthand acquaintance did he have with the Great War? There is a little too much of Tim Ryan in this book, but his renditions of Mademoiselle from Armentières produce a nice feel for the era. And I did see that Knowlton was his wife's maiden name. Otherwise? Prolific during the 1920s, his output ebbed during the 1930s and all but disappeared towards the end of that decade. His participation in World War II? Unknown. And nothing until his death in 1959. Certainly, this man left correspondence or a diary somewhere. It would be interesting if someone researched him. For the adventure writers of South America and the Orient always seem a bit more attractive than the besotted bunch on barstools in Paris.
That time and place? South America in the early 1920s and a group of World War I veterans on an expedition to capture an American millionaire lost among Indian tribes in the Amazon. Whereas the more notable and "reputable" members of the Lost Generation of American writers went to Paris and Europe at this time--Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound, and Dos Passos--another set of less well regarded expat American writers followed Melville's, Stevenson's, and Jack London's footsteps in the South Seas, South America, and Far East--Nordhoff and Hall, Robert Dean Frisbie, and Frederick O'Brien.
Friel fits well among this latter group, despite being somewhat less "literary." As a genre writer for pulp fiction, his work is given little to introspection and psychological study, although it does pop through in a few instances but not for long. Friel's characters are all about catharsis, putting the reader into the shoes of his protagonists, giving them a virtual taste of the air, rivers, jungles, and skies of the tropics. At that, he is second to none.
About Friel personally, I cannot find much. How much firsthand acquaintance did he have with the Great War? There is a little too much of Tim Ryan in this book, but his renditions of Mademoiselle from Armentières produce a nice feel for the era. And I did see that Knowlton was his wife's maiden name. Otherwise? Prolific during the 1920s, his output ebbed during the 1930s and all but disappeared towards the end of that decade. His participation in World War II? Unknown. And nothing until his death in 1959. Certainly, this man left correspondence or a diary somewhere. It would be interesting if someone researched him. For the adventure writers of South America and the Orient always seem a bit more attractive than the besotted bunch on barstools in Paris.
September 4, 2024
My copy was published by Centaur Press out of New York, as part of their Time Lost series. It's pretty good, but also of interest to students of the history of Fantasy. It's got elements of Burroughs and Howard, but doesn't have the narrative drive of these two authors.
September 9, 2018
This was my first Arthur O. Friel story to read and I had heard so many great things about his story writing abilities. Descriptively, the story was good, but that was also its downfall. There was too much description and not enough action. Friel spent too much time detailing the boat, the river, the jungle, the mud, the water, on and on - it got to the point where all he was doing was describing at the expense of the plot. This made the story arduous to read. I'm not sure if he does this in all his stories. I hope not. But because he did that in this story, overall it was merely ok.
December 29, 2018
Just after the conclusion of WWI, three American army men and part-time adventures go to the Brazilian rain forest in search of a wealthy heir gone native and now known as Raposa ('Wild Dog'), thought to be living with a fearsome tribe of cannibals.
To lend a helping hand are two local bushmen named Pedro and Lourenço, who Friel wrote a separate series of stories about. Their knowledge of the jungle proves to be indispensable, e.g.
"Of what use are your eyes, comrades?" he chaffed. "In the bush one should see in all directions at once. You were looking at that patch of sunlight just ahead, yes? But danger lurks in the shadows, not in the glaring light."
Obviously they have some competition. Also on the trail is a double-crossing German called Herr von Schwandorf, a slave trader and distinctly Prussian had guy very popular at that period for obvious reasons.
This is no Heart of Darkness. Friel started out in the pulp magazines and it shows. Talbot Munday did too, but his similar novel The Ivory Trail, which I read immediately before, was miles better.
Oh, and the Bowery patois of one of the characters was annoying.
To lend a helping hand are two local bushmen named Pedro and Lourenço, who Friel wrote a separate series of stories about. Their knowledge of the jungle proves to be indispensable, e.g.
"Of what use are your eyes, comrades?" he chaffed. "In the bush one should see in all directions at once. You were looking at that patch of sunlight just ahead, yes? But danger lurks in the shadows, not in the glaring light."
Obviously they have some competition. Also on the trail is a double-crossing German called Herr von Schwandorf, a slave trader and distinctly Prussian had guy very popular at that period for obvious reasons.
This is no Heart of Darkness. Friel started out in the pulp magazines and it shows. Talbot Munday did too, but his similar novel The Ivory Trail, which I read immediately before, was miles better.
Oh, and the Bowery patois of one of the characters was annoying.
September 13, 2017
I read this a while ago but still remember how much fun it once. This is old school adventure of the type we need more of.
October 7, 2020
even tho i cant read it it seems fun.
August 12, 2015
As far as adventure stories go it's a little bit too dry for my tastes. Friel had actual experience with the subject here and that does add something, but he forgot to imagine up some fun stuff that readers (me) crave. The driving force behind the story is good though, men in the jungle searching for the heir to a fortune. I guess I was just bummed there were no lost cities with mummies and rayguns. It was a decent enough read, just needed some leavening.
August 31, 2011
Surprisingly enjoyable Amazon jungle adventure from 1922. Friel had traveled South American rivers & jungles, so there is veracity in the setting and the people who populate it. Good suspense and a well done final battle.
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July 20, 2014The Pathless Trail by Arthur O. Friel (1922)
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews