The Accidental Ethnographer—Resource Center

Welcome to the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center. 

I have been doing research on William Edgar Geil for three years now, and some of my thinking about the man, his travels, and his writings is on Round and Square. This resource center is meant to help you negotiate the thousand-plus entries on the blog to find the forty or so that deal with Geil. 

Click the links below to find your way.

Phi Beta Kappa Lecture 2011
My first public lecture about William Edgar Geil. This is a very good place to start if you have not heard of him before.

The Isle That Was Called Patmos
This 1896 publication was Geil's first book-length travelogue. Each post in the series is linked to all of the others, so you will be able to find your way once you click the link above.

Click below for other posts from The Isle That Was Called Patmos:

                        Patmos 1          Patmos 2

Ocean and Isle
Geil's second book (1902) is the first to appear from his three-plus year journey across the globe. It focuses on the south seas, followed by an account of his extraordinary mission to Melbourne (many copies of this book are still on used bookstore shelves in Australia, 110 years later).

Click below for other posts from Ocean and Isle:

Isle 1            Isle  2            Isle 3           Isle 4            Isle 5            Isle 6            Isle 7
 

The Great Melbourne Revival

This is from the latter half of Ocean and Isle, but it has its own section on this blog, not the least because it brings out many streams of Geil's experience and talents (not always appreciated by the Melbourne press, but stunningly effective with audiences).

Click below for other posts from "The Great Melbourne Revival":

Revival 1              Revival 2              Revival 3              Revival 4

A Yankee on the Yangtze

Geil begins to hit a stride, of sorts, and to fall hard for China. He would still have many travels and many books to go, and this one has places that would make a China scholar wince...even in 1904. I tell a little about it, but let whole sections speak for themselves.

Click below for other posts in from A Yankee on the Yangtze:

Yankee 1          Yankee 2          Yankee 3          Yankee 4          Yankee 5

Lectures on The Accidental Ethnographer I

This is the first in a series of my own writings that try to explain Geil as thoroughly as I can from my own experiences in studying history, anthropology, and Chinese culture. It tells the story of "my discovery" of Geil all of the way up to the point where...I finished the preface to his last book (the first I read of his works). This is the beginning of the "long" version of an hour-long lecture I gave for the Doylestown Bicentennial Celebration on June 1, 2012. More will follow.

Click below for other posts from Robert André LaFleur's "Long Lecture...Part I" about William Edgar Geil:

Accidental 6a          Accidental 6b          Accidental 6c          Accidental 6d
Accidental 6e          Accidental 6f           Accidental 6g          Accidental 6h