My First Two Ballantyne Books

In 2002 I was attending a homeschool conference with my father who was a speaker at the event. At the time I was nine and a half years old and was serving as my father's assistant. After Dad had finished his keynote presentation, he took me on a walk of the vendor hall. Walking the vendor hall was one of my favorite things to do because it meant I could look for old books. (Dad raised me to be a bibliophile with a passion for antiquarian books!) Because I had been coming with Dad to these conferences for years, and had spent many hours visiting with book vendors, most of the "old book" vendors knew me by name.

As we were going from one vendor to the next Dad and I would always ask to see their selection of 19th century Christian boys literature like the works of G.A.Henty ( with whom I was very familiar at that time). On this occasion I stopped at the table of one vendor and asked the lady who operated the table about her Henty books. She replied, and then asked me I had ever "heard of an author by the name of Ballantyne?"

I certainly never imagined then how important that question was to become for my literary diet. At the time I was completely unfamiliar with Ballantyne. But as she began to explain the power of Ballantyne's stories, and the reason why Christian boys should love them, I became intrigued. She the apologized that she only had two Ballantyne books left.

We looked the books over and I asked Dad if he would be willing to add these to our pile. Dad said he would but I needed to promise him that I would read them. I immediately said that I would. Dad purchased for me my first two Ballantyne---The Coral Island and Martin Rattler. These two are still among my ten favorites. As to the Coral Island, it is not only Ballantyne's most popular book, it is my top recommendation for an introduction into the world of R.M. Ballantyne.

(Above is an image of R.M. Ballantyne and his brother John in the uniform of the Edinburgh Volunteer Corpes, 1859.)