Green Fire

by Peter W. Rainier

These memoirs of Peter W. Rainier document his time in Colombia from the late 1920s throughout the 1930s. He managed and developed the world's two largest emerald mines, Chivor and Muzo. Along the way, he encountered bandits, prospects for a gold mine, and yellow fever. He and his wife also began Colombia's first commercial tea plantation.

Genres: Biography

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I became intrigued by this memoir after reading Paul Cornelius’ review from 2022, which up to now had been the only review on GR.

As Paul says, this book is hard to get hold of. I eventually managed to get a very battered copy at a semi-reasonable price, though still more than I would normally pay for a book. Also when I say very battered, “falling apart” might be more accurate. Actually my copy did pretty much fall apart as I read it. Never mind, it was complete and readable. Those were my priorities!

I had previously seen the 1950s movie starring Stewart Granger, which goes by the same title. It’s fairly average and, aside from the setting of a Colombian emerald mine, bears little resemblance to the book.

Rainier seems to be have been one of those people who led a very colourful life. Paul’s review contains a brief biography so I’m not going to repeat it. I found an article about the Chivor mine on the website of the “Gemological Institute of America,” (GIA) which contains quite a lot about Rainier. The square-jawed action hero type shown on the cover isn’t a very good physical representation of him, since photos of him on the GIA website show an moustachioed man with a pipe, who looks if anything like a typical British Army officer of the 1940s. However, the cover drawing perhaps captures the “spirit” of the man.

I was interested to read on the GIA website that one of Rainier’s successors as manager of the Chivor mine was the American Russ Anderton, as I recently read his memoir “Tic Polonga.” I said in my review of that book that was I sceptical about some of the details. The GIA website rather added to my scepticism of those details, though I was pleased to find Anderton’s account was at least broadly true. Anyway, no reason to be sceptical of Rainier’s account, since his life seems to be a matter of public record.

During his time in Colombia, Rainier battled local bandits seeking to gain control of the mine. He also had to battle the mine’s American owners and investors, who as he put it, were engaged in a more subtle form of banditry.

This a great true life adventure story, suffused with the romance of South America a century ago. Emerald mines! Bandits! Indian tribes! Poisonous snakes! It’s all in here and lots more besides. Some wonderful descriptions of the Colombian Andes and the people who lived there. If you like this category of book you won’t go wrong with this one. The rating is within the genre.

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

These memoirs read like a novel. In fact, they remind me of Arthur O. Friel's adventure stories, which were also set in South America during the 1920s. Like Friel's heroes, Rainier was a veteran of World War I, but his story is set in Colombia, instead of where Friel drew his inspiration, Brazil and Peru. Throw in a dash of Zane Grey and you have one of the most fast paced and addictive biographical accounts of adventure I've ever read. Rainier came to Colombia to operate the long lost Chivor emerald mine. Cheated out of his share of the emeralds' proceeds by New York financiers, he then helped claim a gold mine in one of the most difficult to access regions of the Farallones mountains. When that, too, fell through he took up management of the world's other great emerald mine, Muzo, where he and his workers overcame Yellow Fever, while surviving in the hot, humid atmosphere of Colombia's lowlands--the exact opposite of the cold mountainous peaks of Chivor. And, while Rainier was fighting claim jumping bandits and Wall Street shenanigans, his wife was establishing Colombia's first commercial tea plantation. Oh, and in the midst of all this, Rainier felt a literary urge, began writing short stories, got rejections, enrolled in a correspondence course in publishing fiction, and then started getting his work accepted. Green Fire, a popular literary success, along with several other autobiographical and fictional works was the result.

I suppose you cannot help but think about Hemingway while reading of Rainier's life. In Green Fire, after all, he divides the world up between the doers and the rest. But when looking at it more fully that comparison doesn't hold. Outside the scope of these memoirs, you'll find that Rainier, born in Natal first served as a cavalry trooper in a Zulu rebellion and during World War I fought against the Germans in the South West Africa Campaign. After the war, he found his way to the United States, where he undertook various engineering projects as well as taking part in Florida land speculation. But the appeal of adventure in South America soon caused him to join in the rediscovery of Chivor. With the death of his wife in 1938, Rainier moved to Egypt. Upon the outbreak of World War II, he became a sapper in the Army of the Nile--he would have been around 50 years old. Rainier died in 1945 as a result of severe burns received in a hotel fire.

Now, compare that to Hemingway. I've always tended to hold back saying what I felt about him: namely, he was a pompous fraud. Truth is Rainier is the man Hemingway wanted to be but really wasn't. Instead, ole Ernest mainly spent his life constantly on vacation, getting drunk, watching bullfights, massacring big game animals, and going fishing. Yes, he drove an ambulance in Italy during the last few months of World War I and received some serious wounds. And he gave reports as a war correspondent in Spain during the Civil War and France after the Word War II Normandy landings--although he was often kept somewhat safely out of the action. Born to relative affluence, Hemingway largely managed to skate through life. Quite a difference from Rainier whose family had to flee the advance of the Boers during the Boer War and who worked and learned about dredging for gold early in life.

Finally, this book is extremely difficult to find. Out of print and unavailable digitally, it only found its way into my hands recently, when I saw a copy become available online. Including shipping, I paid $72 to have this Bantam paperback that originally cost 35 cents sent to me in Bangkok. But it was worth it. After finishing it, I was unable to go to sleep. I just kept thinking about it, its landscape, the escape from contemporary society under constant surveillance, the scope of life lived. I wanted to be there. Yet I probably would not have thought of looking for it had I not some time in the late 60s first encountered the 1954 film with Stewart Granger and Grace Kelly. Shot partly in Colombia, it has always seemed to lure me to its exotic setting. And recently I incorporated a chapter on Green Fire and other American adventure films set in South America during the 1950s into a book I'm writing. Finally! I had the excuse I needed to justify searching out the book and buying it--no matter the price (fact is, had I known how good this book was, I would have paid twice as much as I did). The upshot of this all is that this is another rare book I've found which I doubt too many others will even manage to get hold of. So this review will probably remain here lonely and by itself for quite some time.