Polynesian Seafaring
A Disquisition on Prehistoric Celestial Navigation and the Nature of Seagoing Double Canoes with Illustrations Reproducting Original Field Sketches, Wash Drawings, or Prints by Artists on the Early Voyages of Exploration and Occasional Written Reports from On-the-Scene Obeserver
by EDWARD DODD.
"Edward H. Dodd Jr., 83, a Writer And Ex-Head of Publishing House "
Published: December 21st, 1988
By EDWIN MCDOWELL
Edward H. Dodd Jr., a publisher and an author of books about the South Seas, died of prostate cancer Monday at his home in Putney, Vt. He was 83 years old.
Mr. Dodd was the great-great-grandson of Moses Woodruff Dodd, who in 1839 founded the publishing house of Dodd, Mead in a corner of Brick Church Chapel in old City Hall Park in Manhattan. Mr. Dodd served, as his father had, as president of Dodd, Mead and its chairman.
Mr. Dodd was an inveterate traveler and a student of the cultures of Polynesia. After his graduation from Yale University in 1928, he sailed a 76-foot schooner to the South Seas with four classmates, a navigator and a cook in an adventure he wrote about in ''Great Dipper to Southern Cross'' (1930).
That journey sparked his lifelong interest in the Pacific islands. He owned a house on one of the Society Islands, 200 miles from Tahiti, and until recently divided his time between there and his home in Putney. Five Books on the Islands
Mr. Dodd wrote five books about Polynesia: ''Tales of Maui'' (1964), ''Polynesian Art'' (1967), ''Polynesian Seafaring'' (1972), ''Polynesia's Sacred Isle'' (1976) and ''The Rape of Tahiti'' (1983).
Reviewing ''Polynesian Art'' in The New York Times Book Review, Ernest S. Dodge, then the director of the Peabody Museum of Salem, Mass., pronounced it ''not only a good book but the best-written book in the primitive-art field yet to appear.''
Mr. Dodd was born in Manhattan on June 25, 1905. He went to work in the Dodd, Mead shipping room in 1929, and the following year became a book salesman. He joined the editorial department in 1935 and became its head two years later. In 1953 he was named president of the house and remained in that capacity until 1957, when he semi-retired to write full time. From 1966 to 1975 he was chairman - or ''semi-active chairman,'' as he told an interviewer.
In 1981, Mr. Dodd and his brother and sister approved the sale of Dodd, Mead to Thomas Nelson Inc., a Nashville-based religious publisher. Nelson sold the company to private investors in 1984, and the firm is now in liquidation. Divorced in 1950
Mr. Dodd married Roxana Scoville in 1932. They were divorced in 1950. His companion from then until her death in 1981 was Camille Oberweiser.
During World War II, Mr. Dodd served in Washington with the Office of Strategic Services. He was the author of ''The First Hundred Years,'' a history of Dodd, Mead.
The New York Times
by EDWARD DODD.
"Edward H. Dodd Jr., 83, a Writer And Ex-Head of Publishing House "
Published: December 21st, 1988
By EDWIN MCDOWELL
Edward H. Dodd Jr., a publisher and an author of books about the South Seas, died of prostate cancer Monday at his home in Putney, Vt. He was 83 years old.
Mr. Dodd was the great-great-grandson of Moses Woodruff Dodd, who in 1839 founded the publishing house of Dodd, Mead in a corner of Brick Church Chapel in old City Hall Park in Manhattan. Mr. Dodd served, as his father had, as president of Dodd, Mead and its chairman.
Mr. Dodd was an inveterate traveler and a student of the cultures of Polynesia. After his graduation from Yale University in 1928, he sailed a 76-foot schooner to the South Seas with four classmates, a navigator and a cook in an adventure he wrote about in ''Great Dipper to Southern Cross'' (1930).
That journey sparked his lifelong interest in the Pacific islands. He owned a house on one of the Society Islands, 200 miles from Tahiti, and until recently divided his time between there and his home in Putney. Five Books on the Islands
Mr. Dodd wrote five books about Polynesia: ''Tales of Maui'' (1964), ''Polynesian Art'' (1967), ''Polynesian Seafaring'' (1972), ''Polynesia's Sacred Isle'' (1976) and ''The Rape of Tahiti'' (1983).
Reviewing ''Polynesian Art'' in The New York Times Book Review, Ernest S. Dodge, then the director of the Peabody Museum of Salem, Mass., pronounced it ''not only a good book but the best-written book in the primitive-art field yet to appear.''
Mr. Dodd was born in Manhattan on June 25, 1905. He went to work in the Dodd, Mead shipping room in 1929, and the following year became a book salesman. He joined the editorial department in 1935 and became its head two years later. In 1953 he was named president of the house and remained in that capacity until 1957, when he semi-retired to write full time. From 1966 to 1975 he was chairman - or ''semi-active chairman,'' as he told an interviewer.
In 1981, Mr. Dodd and his brother and sister approved the sale of Dodd, Mead to Thomas Nelson Inc., a Nashville-based religious publisher. Nelson sold the company to private investors in 1984, and the firm is now in liquidation. Divorced in 1950
Mr. Dodd married Roxana Scoville in 1932. They were divorced in 1950. His companion from then until her death in 1981 was Camille Oberweiser.
During World War II, Mr. Dodd served in Washington with the Office of Strategic Services. He was the author of ''The First Hundred Years,'' a history of Dodd, Mead.
The New York Times
