The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story

Fever Dream*

Cemetery Dance

The Wheel of Darkness

The Book of the Dead**

Dance of Death**

Brimstone**

Still Life with Crows

The Cabinet of Curiosities

Reliquary?

Relic?





Gideon Crew Novels


Beyond the Ice Limit

The Lost Island

Gideon’s Corpse

Gideon’s Sword





Other Novels


The Ice Limit

Thunderhead

Riptide

Mount Dragon


* The Helen Trilogy ** The Diogenes Trilogy ? Relic and Reliquary are ideally read in sequence





Sources and Bibliography


The conversations reported in this book were either recorded on tape or written down at the time they occurred. The events were chronicled in real time, in contemporary notes or on video. No details, events, discoveries, or conversations have been reconstructed after the fact or imagined. To avoid confusion and unnecessary complexity, some quotations from interviews conducted on separate occasions have been combined in the same conversation.

Sources are listed in the approximate order they appear in each chapter.

Chapters with no sources listed are based on the author’s personal experience only.





Chapter 2: Somewhere in the Americas


Author interviews and correspondence with Ron Blom and Bob Crippen, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, August and September 1997.

Author interview with David Stuart, Harvard University, 1997.

Author interview with Gordon Willey, Harvard University, 1997.

Author interviews and correspondence with Steve Elkins, 1997.





Chapter 3: The Devil Had Killed Him


The Fifth Letter of Hernan Cortes to the Emperor Charles V, translated from the original Spanish by Don Pascual de Gayangos. Originally published by the Hakluyt Society. New York: Lenox Hill Publishers (Burt Franklin), reprinted 1970. Retrieved from the website of the Library of the University of California.

Christopher Begley and Ellen Cox, “Reading and Writing the White City Legend: Allegories Past and Future.” Southwest Philosophy Review, Vol. 23, No. 1, January 2007.

John L. Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, Vols. 1 and 2. New York: Dover Publications, 1969.

Eduard Conzemius, “Los Indios Payas de Honduras: Estudio Geográfico, Histórico, Etnográfico y Linguístico,” Journal de la Société des Américanistes, Vol. 19, 1927. Retrieved from persee.fr.

William Duncan Strong, “1936 Strong Honduras Expedition,” Vols. 1 and 2. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. Unpublished journals.

William Duncan Strong, “Honduras Expedition Journal 1933.” Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. Unpublished journal.

Ralph Solecki and Charles Wagley, “William Duncan Strong, 1899–1962.” American Anthropologist, Vol. 65, No. 5, 1963. Retrieved pdf from Wiley Online Library.





Chapter 4: A Land of Cruel Jungles


Christopher S. Stewart, Jungleland. New York: HarperCollins, 2013 (e-book edition).

Lawrence M. Small, “A Passionate Collector.” Washington, DC: Smithsonian magazine, November 2000.

“George Heye Dies; Museum Founder.” New York Times, January 21, 1957.

Leona Raphael, “Explorer Seeks Fabled Lost City; Spurns Weaker Sex Companionship.” Calgary Daily Herald, June 16, 1934.

“Frederick Mitchell-Hedges Dies; British Explorer and Author, 76.” New York Times, June 13, 1959.

J. Eric S. Thompson, Maya Archaeologist. London: Robert Hale, 1963.

“Seek Cradle of Race in American Jungle.” New York Times, January 24, 1931.

“Hold-Up of Explorer in England Proves Hoax.” New York Times, January 17, 1927.





Chapter 5: One of the Few Remaining Mysteries


“‘City of Monkey God’ Is Believed Located.” New York Times, July 12, 1940.

“Honduran Jungles Yield Indian Data.” New York Times, August 2, 1940.

“TV Producer a Suicide.” New York Times, June 28, 1954.

Christopher S. Stewart, Jungleland, op. cit.

National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution. Fifty-two unpublished accession catalog cards and photographs from the Theodore Morde Third Honduran Expedition.

Theodore Morde, “In the Lost City of Ancient America’s Monkey God.” Milwaukee Sentinel, September 22, 1940.

“Seek Long Lost City of Monkey God.” Sunday Morning Star, United Press, April 7, 1940.

“Theodore Ambrose Morde, 1911–1954.” Unpublished, bound volume of original documents, letters, articles, photographs, and typescripts by or relating to Theodore Morde. In the possession of the Morde family.

Theodore Morde and Lawrence Brown, unpublished journals of the Third Honduran Expedition (3 vols.), 1940. In the possession of the Morde family.

E-mail from Christopher Begley, November 4, 2015, confirming Lancetillal as Morde’s presumed city.

Correspondence with Derek Parent, 2015, 2016.





Chapter 6: The Heart of Darkness


Author interviews and correspondence with Steve Elkins, 1997, 2010–2016.

Author interviews with Bruce Heinicke, 2012.

Steve Elkins interview with George Hasemann, 1994.

Author correspondence with the University of Pennsylvania and Penn State, 2015, 2016.

Bhupendra Jasani, “Remote Monitoring from Space: The Resolution Revolution.” In Verification Yearbook, 2000. London: Vertic, 2000. Retrieved from www.vertic.org/media/Archived_Publications/Yearbooks/2000/VY00_Jasani.pdf.

Steve Elkins interview with Sam Glassmire, 1997.

Sam Glassmire, The Bush. Privately published book, 2002.

Sam Glassmire, “He Found a Lost City.” Denver Post Sunday Empire Magazine, November 27 and December 4, 1960.

Sam Glassmire, hand-drawn map, dated February 2, 1960.

“Obituary for Glassmire.” Albuquerque Journal, December 1, 2002.

Thomas H. Maugh II, “Ubar, Fabled Lost City, Found by L.A. Team.” Los Angeles Times, February 5, 1992.





Chapter 7: The Fish That Swallowed the Whale


Philip Sherwell, “Welcome to Honduras, the Most Dangerous Country on the Planet.” Telegraph, November 16, 2013.

Rich Cohen, The Fish That Ate the Whale, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.

Boston Fruit Company, Boston Fruit Company Records, 1891–1901. Baker Library, Harvard Business School. Retrieved from Online Archival Search Information System.

United Fruit Company, “Andrew W. Preston Biography.” Retrieved from unitedfruit.org.

William Finnegan, “An Old-Fashioned Coup.” New Yorker, November 30, 2009.





Chapter 8: Lasers in the Jungle


“The Loot of Lima Treasure Story.” Retrieved from aqvisions.com.

Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase, and John F. Weishampel, “Lasers in the Jungle.” Archaeology, Vol. 63, No. 4, July/August 2010.

Arlen F. Chase et al., “Geospatial Revolution and Remote Sensing LiDAR in Mesoamerican Archaeology.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 109, No. 32, June 25, 2012. Retrieved from pnas.org.

Arlen F. Chase et al., “Airborne LiDAR, Archaeology, and the Ancient Maya Landscape at Caracol, Belize.” Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 38, No. 2, February 2011.

Juan Carlos Fernández Díaz, “Lifting the Canopy Veil.” Imaging Notes, Vol. 26, No. 2, Spring 2011.