A lesson to schoolchildren today ... don't be too hasty to throw away your old textbooks after exams are over. They might be valuable one day.
But have you ever wondered who was Vernon Mullen, whose name we were familiar with for a number of years during our youth? Well, I did some investigation. Apparently he was a Canadian educator who did some teaching of English in different parts of the world, including Sudan, Ethiopia, Sarawak and China. Mullen was in Sarawak from 1957-1963 and again from 1965-1968. Apart from the familiar history book above, he also published his memoirs "Them Lions Will Eat Them Up: Teaching English Around the World" (Voyageur Pub, 1999). I'm still looking for a copy for my collection so if anyone has any ideas where I can find one ...
I remember Borneo Literature Bureau . Its office was on Rock Road right?
ReplyDeleteGreat job, James ! Thanks for the posting - brings back memories, good memories, that is - of our days in St. Joe.
ReplyDeleteSomeone mentioned "Borneo Literature Bureau" - I remember being an ardent fan of its monthly publication, "The Dolphin" - cost 25sen then and I really enjoyed reading it. Looked forward to every issue then as there were hardly any local English publications during those days...at that affordable price too.
Hope some kind soul can furnish an old copy to WSJ for posting.
Cheers and keep up the good job, WSJ !!!!
Hi Edmund, I also have fond memories of "The Dolphin" magazine and even contributed some writings to it. Many were rejected by eventually I had one short story published - a piece called "Salty Tales" if my memory serves me. This was obviously one of the highlights of my primary school days and I wish I kept a copy of that issue. Can anyone remember how the magazine ceased publication? I vaguely recall there was something called "Perintis" which replaced it ...
ReplyDeleteAs per my memory, Perintis is a separate publication in Bahasa Malaysia and did not replace Dolphin.
ReplyDeleteLS - yes, now I remember. I found "Perintis" hard to read because of my poor BM. But didn't Dolphin stop and then "Perintis" began, or were they concurrent?
ReplyDeleteWah, ELAS really knows how to keep and preserved the book from primary school ho?
ReplyDelete@ SinBoonPoh: thanks, but the credit should go to WSJ. Don't know how he managed to lay hands on that precious copy of Vernon Mullen's 2nd Edition.
ReplyDeleteThe topic started innocently as a FB discussion where a certain Kamil Salem mentioned that he did study the history of Sarawak - using a "yellow, red and black" textbook with Sir James Brooke on its cover.
Perhaps James would like to share with us on your "discovery" ? Thanks.
No lah, ELAS & SinBoonPoh, I also don't have the precious book. This particular book actually belongs to a Kuching gentleman called Mahmood, whose blog I visited. I "borrowed" the image.
ReplyDeleteYou guys might also be interested in checking out his blog at http://mysarawak2.blogspot.com/2010/09/greater-malaysia-happy-malaysia-day-at.html
I recall a representative from BLB promoting 'Perintis' when it was first launched. Among the reasons given for Perintis was the raise the standard of Bahasa Malaysia which they found was far below than in West Malaysia. (WJ has admitted to being poor in BM).
ReplyDeletePerintis was launched either in 1970 or 1971. Dolphin continued to be published after Perintis was launched. Not sure when the 2 publications ceased though.
Didn't the BLB building catch fire at some point?
ReplyDelete