Stark's History and Guide to Jamaica
Two hundred pages, and over fifty full-page illustrations.
From the Jamaica "News."
Jamaica has not been without literature descriptive of her charms, but there is no book which pays her so eloquent a tribute as Stark's "History and Guide to Jamaica." It is a handsome volume and one which cannot be absent from any well equipped West Indian bookshelf. Mr. Stark hails from Boston, but the works which he will leave behind will associate him more closely with the jewels of the Caribbean Sea. Few better than he have appreciated to the full the dazzling beauties of the West Indies, and few have pictured them with such graphic force. Mr. Stark has not been content with skilled word-pictures in his portrayal of Jamaica. The volume is made beautiful by fifty-six exquisite full-page photographic reproductions. These must have added very materially to the expense of production, but they serve to render the book by far the best-illustrated work the island has ever possessed. There are also a map of the West Indies, a detailed map of Jamaica and a street plan of Kingston, all specially engraved for the "Guide."
The work which Mr. Stark has completed is one that the government of Jamaica might have undertaken in an earnest effort to benefit the island, but it could not have done it so well, nor would its labors have been free from the suspicion of prejudice. Mr. Stark is a stranger, an American, whose unqualified praise is not biased by consideration of patriotism; and his work is likely to prove so potent a factor in the working out of the island's salvation that the government could do no more beneficent act than to make a present of a copy of the work to every public library throughout the English-speaking world.
The book is full of interest from cover to cover. From the opening chapter to the last there is much to instruct, and the writing is of such excellence that we never wearied. There are in all nineteen chapters to the work, and the book has been handsomely printed, bound, and illustrated.—News, Jamaica.