cover image China Born: Adventures of a Maverick Bookman

China Born: Adventures of a Maverick Bookman

Henry Noyes. China Books & Periodicals, $19.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-0-8351-2198-9

This long-winded autobiography tells the tale of rugged individualist Noyes, who founded China Books, an importer of publications from the People's Republic of China, in 1960. Noyes introduces his grandfather and namesake, who traveled to China from Ohio in the 1860s as a missionary, instituting an ambitious program of education. The author himself was born outside Canton in 1910; his Chinese childhood ended abruptly eight years later, when his mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis and the family resettled in Canada. He recalls his colorful first visit to the farm in Seville, Ohio, where his grandfather grew up--the house, decorated with Chinese momentos, was a virtual museum to the family's missionary service in China. Noyes unpersuasively describes the distinct political climates during his own two trips to China, the first in 1974, the second a decade later--his account, naive and one-sided, presents China's political structure as exemplary. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Oct.)