Editor's note. The first American edition was in 1851, and the first British one 1852. James F. Bowman was a Californian journalist, and a very talented one. Eric Quayle, in his book “Ballantyne the Brave” holds that Ballantyne would certainly have read this book at a time, early in his literary career, when he was looking for inspiration for “The Coral Island”, which he had contracted to write for Nelsons, the publishers, as the first British edition of “The Island Home” had been published by them. It is true there are some striking similarities, but it is also true that they are both well-written and excellent books.
In the Devil's Dictionary, under the word “Serial”, we find that Bowman and another journalist were producing a weekly serial for a newspaper, supposedly a gripping and lurid tale that would go on for ever. At one point the two authors fell out, and when Bowman read what had been published that weekend by his colleague, so that he could get the next episode written during the week, he found that all the dramatis personae had been in a ship that had foundered in mid-Atlantic, with all lives lost. I don't suppose that Bowman was very pleased!
The edition I worked from is the Routledge one, and this, surprisingly, never mentions the name of Bowman, nor Romaunt. The author's name on the cover is Richard Archer, and the subsidiary title is “The Adventures of Six Young Crusoes.” The surprising thing is that there were in fact seven, and one of the illustrations shows seven, Very odd!
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