The subject of this story, published in the Buchan Observer in September 1936, is Ernest William Darling, who became famous as a result of meeting the novelist Jack London in Tahiti and was the subject of London’s own story “The Nature Man” published in an American magazine in 1908. According to London, Darling had studied medicine at Stanford University before contracting TB aged 25. He then travelled the world, settling for a while near Papeiti in Tahiti (French Polynesia) where he lived on a largely fruit and nut-based diet and returned to full health.
Barrowsgate’s account of Darling is different from London’s – Jim described him as having studied divinity – a “deeply religious man” who “preached a gospel of Christian Socialism”.
