Jim Corbett of India (Life and Legend of a Messiah)

Contents: 1. Foreword. 2. A few words. 3. The Corbetts (a journey from West to East). 4. Jim Corbett-the legend. 5. The icon Jim Corbet - a brief. 6. The creative urge. 7. The celebrity author. 8. The creative excellence. 9. The book reviews. 10. Inherent love for India. 11. Jim Corbett-the saint. 12. The public service. 13. Glimpses of life and Mokameh Ghat. 14. Departure from India. 15. The Kenya days. 16. End of an era. 17. Margaret Winifred Corbett (Maggie). 18. The Corbett family tree. 19. The great, letter writer-Jim. 20. Jim Corbetts Will. 21. The chronology. 22. Gems of Jim Corbett. 23. Many facets of Jim. 24. The pioneer conservationist. 25. The royal visit at tree tops. 26. The extraordinary Jim. 27. True homage. 28. Immortalising Jim. 29. The priceless viewpoints. 30. Exclusive jungle knowledge. 31. While in the wild. 32. From Corbett's stories. 33. The entrepreneur Jim. 34. The Army connections. 35. The Railwayman par-excellence. 36. Marriage hiccups. 37. First-ever visit to England. 38. Tiger slaying in India. 39. Terrorising the terror. 40. The Shikari (hunter) Jim. 41. Man-eaters. 42. Man-eaters and Jim Corbett. 43. Man-eaters trail. 44. From man-eaters of Kumaon. 45. In remembrance. 46. Jim the naturalist. 47. Passion for photography. 48. Films by Jim Corbett. 49. Rudyard kipling and Jim Corbett. 50. Superstitions and Jim Corbett. 51. Corbett biographies. 52. Corbett national park and tiger reserve. 53. The film on Corbett. 54. Bibliography. 55. Index.

"The title provides rare inputs about James Edward Corbett, better known to the world as Jim Corbett, whom many of us remember as the pioneer conservationist. Fact prevails that Jim too started with the Universal Journey to the happy hunting grounds; but he learned from his experiences and dared to carve an unique niche for himself and paved path for the world community for living with the nature and its priceless resources. He remained concerned for others till his last breath, which gets reflected in his last words to his sister; to strife for a world, which is a happy place for the people to live in.

The endeavor of Author is to provide Corbett admirers with something new to read about their icon, as well as to create an environment where people find time to read Corbett's own books about his thrilling adventures. It is a biography of a legend, one who was so selfless in his affairs, a challenging task with coverage of all aspects of his life, a narrative from birth to death, covering from early childhood at Nainital (India) to the terminal days in Nairobi (Kenya, Africa). The biography brings Jim Corbett's picture as an unassuming personality, very generous, courageous and kind hearted, one who lived merely for the masses.

The initial chapters are dedicated to the brief account of the familial land environmental influences that orchestrated Jim's personality and nurtured his interest in the jungle life. One will know how different from an ordinary human being, particularly for his large heartedness, his benevolent deeds, he was. His benevolent deeds endeared him to his people and made him a household name in the Kumaon region of current Uttaranchal. The title also pictures his interest about India and its masses and rightly projects him as a man of wide sympathies and deep understanding. It provides sufficient space to the exclusive Jim Corbett titles e.g. Jungle Lore, Tree Tops, Man-Eaters of Kumaon, Temple Tiger, More Man-Eaters of Kumaon and The Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag as well as to the existing works on the legend.

The book reflects how concerned and dedicated Jim Corbett was, how time and again he risked his life to rid the Indian people of the perils of man-eaters. It also brings out how irrespective of having no creative and literary pretensions, his mere narrations of the truthful adventures in his books put them at a pedestal where they finds a place in the genre of literature and presents him as an author of international repute." (jacket)