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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=933094902-10122003>I have just learned
that Peter A. Lanyon-Orgill, who published a number of works on Austronesian and
Papuan languages, and also edited the Journal of Austronesian Studies during the
1950s and 60s, died about a year ago in a nursing home in Marazion, Cornwall.
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=933094902-10122003>Some will remember
the review of Lanyon-Orgill's book "Captain Cook's South Sea Island
Vocabularies" (JPS 92:552-559, 1983) in which Paul Geraghty
presented compelling evidence that a number of previously unknown
vocabularies contained in the book, purported to have been collected on Cook's
voyages, were spurious. Examination of other works by Lanyon-Orgill in the light
of this finding raises many other questions of authenticity and originality, of
fact and fiction.</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=933094902-10122003>Lanyon-Orgill in
life was also a somewhat enigmatic figure (to me, at least). He lived in
England, Scotland and Canada at various times, mainly exercising the profession
of schoolmaster. He refers here and there to having done field work in
Australia, New Guinea and the New Hebrides, but I have not been able to confirm
this. Perhaps someone on this list met him in one of these places, or can
otherwise confirm that he was there? Equally mysterious are persons credited by
Lanyon-Orgill with supplying information or assistance, whose existence has
been impossible to document -- "Dr Siegfried Passman of Rabaul", "Prof
Schwarzenburg" of Vienna, "Garibaldi Galizzani", to name a few. Do any of
these names ring a bell?</SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
class=933094902-10122003></SPAN></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN class=933094902-10122003>Ross
Clark</SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>