Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

About Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

Charles Nordhoff (1887-1947), born in London to American parents and raised in California, and James Norman Hall (1887-1951), born in Colfax, Iowa, met as American volunteer pilots with French aviation in the First World War. Together they edited the history The Lafayette Flying Corps (1920) and then settled in Tahiti, where they wrote travel pieces, the air-war novel Falcons of France (1929) and, after long research in naval records, the Bounty trilogy (1932-1934). Later collaborations include The Hurricane (1936). Hall remained in Tahiti until his death and described their partnership in his memoir My Island Home.