E. M. Haymaker

E. M. Haymaker, a missionary in Guatemala, wrote this book in the early 1900s and turned it in to a local publisher. Before they printed it, an earthquake destroyed the print shop.

Jump ahead to about 1980. Somebody going through old storage found the manuscript and took it to a couple of the missionaries in town (Quetzaltenango, Guatemala). I happened to be present and volunteered to make a couple copies for them, if I could make an additional copy for myself. I've never heard of them doing anything else, but as I read through my copy, I was astounded. Back in (about) 1900 he analyzed Guatemalan culture and predicted what the future would be like. It is amazing to me how prescient he could be. Time after time I was thinking - if they had just had this (and followed his opinions), things would be so different, because he said what would happen if X was done instead of Y - and all through the 1900s we've done all those X's instead of Y's, and each time the results were as he predicted.
I wish the book had been published, and he'd done the other books he intended to do in the series (one volume for each country in Central America), though he didn't spend as much time in the other countries, so I'm not sure how good they would be.

FYI - as far as I know this is JUST a ms, not a published book.… (altro)