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Biography
American

Charles Nordhoff

1887 — 1947

American novelist best known for co-authoring (with James Norman Hall) the Bounty Trilogy — Mutiny on the Bounty (1932), Men Against the Sea (1934), and Pitcairn's Island (1934) — one of the most successful adventure collaborations in American literature. A World War I aviator and Pacific expatriate, Nordhoff lived in Tahiti for most of his adult life and drew on his deep knowledge of Polynesian culture and maritime history.

Past sales0
PeriodModernist
NationalityAmerican
1. Biography

A short life of the author

Charles Bernard Nordhoff (1887–1947) was an American novelist and aviator who, with his writing partner James Norman Hall, produced the Bounty Trilogy — one of the most popular works of adventure fiction in the twentieth century.

Both men served as pilots in the Lafayette Flying Corps during World War I and settled in Tahiti afterward. Their collaboration produced Mutiny on the Bounty (1932), based on the 1789 mutiny against Captain William Bligh, followed by Men Against the Sea (1934) and Pitcairn’s Island (1934). The trilogy was adapted into three major films, most famously the 1935 MGM production with Clark Gable and Charles Laughton.

Nordhoff also co-authored The Hurricane (1936) and several other South Seas novels with Hall, as well as solo works about aviation and Pacific life.

Collecting Nordhoff

First editions of Mutiny on the Bounty (1932, Little, Brown) in fine condition with dust jacket are prized and can bring $1,000–$3,000. The complete Bounty Trilogy in first editions is a desirable set. Nordhoff’s solo works about aviation and the Pacific are less expensive but collected by specialists in World War I literature and South Seas fiction.