The Way of a Transgressor

by Negley Farson

Part biography, part travelogue, and part history, the book chronicles the life of its author from late childhood at the turn of the twentieth century to its conclusion in the early 1930s. Its locales span turn-of-the-century Chicago; Russia immediately before, during, and right after the Bolshevik Revolution; Egypt in World War I; and a two-year idyll in the still-unspoiled backwoods of British Columbia. It effectively concludes with an astounding odyssey on a twenty-six-foot, two-and-a-half-ton yawl, dubbed "Flame," sailing from the Lower Rhine in Holland to the Black Sea coast of Romania -- a trip that took Farson and his wife, Eve, three thousand miles across Europe in an era without GPS, sonar, maritime radar, and apparently without even a long-range radio aboard -- inland along rivers passing through countries already benighted in the gathering darkness of Nazism and Fascism. -- David Alexander

Genres: Biography, Travel, Nonfiction

602 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

At one time considered one of North America’s most intrepid journalists, Farson is probably little known today to most readers under the age of 50. Farson was raised by his eccentric grandfather, the notorious Civil War General James Negley who ‘made other men look like mongrel dogs.’ With such a colourful family background, it should have come as no surprise that young Negley was not only expelled from college but immediately emigrated on to England.

The excitement of the First World War soon lured him even further afield. The young student, now turned journalist, soon showed up in Russia and was present in Red Square the day the Bolshevik Revolution broke out. Farson went on to become one of the most renowned foreign correspondents of his day. He covered a host of varied and exciting world events including interviewing Gandhi in India, witnessing bank-robber John Dillinger’s naked body in the morgue just after he had been shot down by Hoover’s men, and meeting Hitler, who described Farson’s small blond son, Daniel, as a “good Aryan boy.”
A renowned fly-fisherman, Farson’s private life was just as turbulent as his journalism career. He partied with F. Scott Fitzgerald and supposedly out-drank Ernest Hemingway

Reviews

[John Alt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book like no other because its author experienced life against a backdrop of cataclysmic historical changes. It is not written in an expository mode but is instead almost picaresque in its development as Farson moves from one episode in his life to another without tying them together for the reader. He grew up with his grandfather, a Civil War general, living in genteel poverty, and became a businessman in Edwardian England, then moved to Russia, living in a hotel, profiteering off a war weapons trade as the Czarist government became mired in battles at home and abroad. At home, with anarchists and revolutionaries; abroad in combat with Germany and the Central Powers. He hobnobbed with princes and princelings, courtesans and other war profiteers. With the Czarist government about to topple, he became a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps in Egypt. A journalist in later life, he has an eye for telling descriptions but can be careless in his style. Carelessness is evoked in the "transgressor" of the book title, for that is how Farson saw himself, a transgressor, a sinner, who seized the main chance often without moral scruples. He does not say that outright but the reader understands his life speaks for itself.

[Rtrv2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I was fed up with the night life of Petrograd. I would never have believed it if anyone had told me so; but even the sight of a nude girl at the piano was beginning to pall."

No matter how much you pack in to your life, you are never going to be able to compete with Negley Farson.

[CQM · Rating 4 out of 5]

More memoir than autobiography this. Filled with the broader details of an adventurous life this tells of the momentous moments in early 20th century history that Negley Farson was witness too plus breif sketches of some of his more personal adventures.
In the first category we have the RussianRevolution, Negley sees Lenin speak, WWI, Negley, despite being American, joins the Royal Flying Corps, Rioting in India and Gandhis being arrested by very polite British policemen.
In the second category we have his youthful rowing adventures, business deals in London, Manchester, Moscow, Chicago and New York, Life as semi recluse with his wife on a houseboat in British Columbia, a sailing trip right across Europe and a whaling trip!
Reading this you could get the impression he was some Hemingway-esque brash hunter/adventurer type but actually despite the period he lived and the fact that he hunted and fished by the end of the book you feel he is slightly upset by much of the hunting and whaling, if not the people who do it.
A cracking read but only really whetted my appetite to read his books that focus on single adventures.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

wonderful life , wonderful historical events , very interesting and informative.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was another title I picked up from the local book fair in Wisconsin. I had no idea what it was about when I picked it up. It had a plain cover with only the title on the side to give any indication about what this book was. After reading the first couple pages and looking up the author, I decided to give it a chance.

The best way I can describe my feelings about this autobiography is mixed. I think my desire to want to like his story is battling with my actual enjoyment of it. On the surface, this should be the most interesting man from the 30s. He’s an American expat who moves to England and travels all over Europe during its most tumultuous time period. He’s experienced Russia during the Tsarist days and it’s Soviet days, he fought for the British Air Corps, he lived as a survivalist in British Columbia, he witnessed the rise of European nationalism and met figures like Lenin and Gandhi. I don’t doubt for a second that this guy has lived an interesting life. The whole time I was reading his account, however, I couldn’t help but feel bored. I wanted to blame it on my short attention span but I have read other autobiographical accounts, hell academic accounts at that, that were less boring than this. It was a pain just to get through the whole book. It took me a good month or so before I even completed it because I just didn’t want to go through with it. I don’t know how a former journalist for the Chicago Daily Times was unable to sensationalize his own story.

I think part of the issue lies in his complete passivity to all the events happening around him. Yes, taking the first step to move out of your home country to explore something entirely different is a big step to overcome, but after that first initial step it feels like things happen to him and he just accepts it. He gets tossed around as an engineer working in London, it’s how he ends up in Russia in the first place. Then, he joined the British Army because his friends suggested it. The only other time he’s really ‘intentional’ with anything is when he moves to British Columbia to submit written pieces to whatever publication will take it. Then he gets tossed around some more. He also doesn’t seem to have real opinions for anything. I don’t know if this is just a habit from his journalism days where he might have been pressured to stay ‘impartial’ for whatever piece he wrote, but for an autobiography it’s a bit jarring. He’s not writing for a newspaper anymore, it’s okay to show a bit more of yourself and your biases. At least it would show that he’s human. The only major bias I got was his political lean towards National Socialism, but he never really goes into depth about why he leans this way, besides witnessing how young people in those states seemed to be filled with a positive spirit. I doubt he hardly knows why. He just goes with whatever is thrown at him. He also seems easily swayed by anyone he happens to talk to. I bet if he had a chance to talk to Hitler he’d talk about what an upstanding and personable guy he was. Of course everyone seems like a decent person when you talk to them, no one wants to be seen as a villain. The only person he really ever talked bad of was the Russian-Jewish guy from the beginning that pulled one over on him, but comparatively speaking he was probably one of the least harmful characters throughout his story.

I really wanted to love this story, and I do think this man lived an interesting life, but he doesn’t do it any justice. He seems to focus on the least interesting aspects of the events he happens to be a part of and doesn’t allow the reader any insight into what biases he might have. It’s hard to get a read on him, which is somewhat important to establish if you’re going to spend time writing an autobiography about yourself. It felt like he barely knew himself at all, which ruined the experience of reading his story overall.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful account of Farson's life with his love of Russia and fascinating story of the revolution and afterwards. Add to that his houseboat in Canada and journalistic life and you have a rip-roaring account of the first half of the 20th century with some interesting insights.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think this published in 1936. fairly rare book , this one is harcourt brace. has a few photos in it, just a few.
a saga of negley farson's life up to nazi takeover of germany, err election, whatever.
he grew up raised by his grandfather, a usa civil war general who was a monster, but at least didnt kill his grandson. farson gets kicked out of his prep school so doesn't go to ivy league like expected. learns to hunt fish and sail on Chesapeake bay, joins british in early wwi to fly planes, has bad crash in Egypt where he badly injured his legs and had to get uncountable operations through his life. married a wonderful woman and after they got tired of living hermit life on houseboat in british comlombia and after failed import export arms and war materiel company goes bust in russia in 1919 and lives to witness the revolution unfold, hell, he is in it really, takes a job in chicago for mack truck and makes so dollars, then buys a sailboat and his wife and him sail and motor from holland to black sea through europe and writing stoires for newspaper then ummm shit all kinds of things happen, whale hunting, gorilla hunting , cape buffalo hunting, extended stay in spain, extended stay in ussr, fishing all over, reporting in india during their revolution, all the time writing for newspaper and eventually his own books. well, just a hellof a story and though at times a bit tough-guy-hemingway like (who farson thought was a big braggart and pussy) farson is pretty liberal and definitely knew what it was like to live in abject poverty, AND what it was like to swank around with royalty, rich people, movers and shakers of po;politics and gin, and also gave up hunting as immoral, and , well, he can tell a story like anything. fun read, interesting angles to world history 1900's to 1936. i am not sure really who in modern times could match this life, maybe pico iyer? bolano? ian frazier? jeffey tayler?

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the memoirs of a newspaperman, Negley Farson, who was born into a formerly wealthy family. What I found most interesting was his exploits just before, during and after the First World War, for Farson moved to Russia to make his fortune and was there during the Russian Revolution. He gives the perspective of foreigners (his own as well as friends and colleagues of different nationalities) living there during this turbulent time. He would liked to have continued living in Russia, which he compared to a wild west, a virgin territory where anything went to make money. His memoirs continued to the early thirties and include many amazing exploits.