Agnes Newton Keith (born
Agnes Jones Goodwillie Newton; July 4, 1901 – March 30, 1982) was an American writer best known for her three autobiographical accounts of life in North Borneo (now Sabah) before, during, and after World War II. The second of these, Three Came Home, tells of her time in Japanese prisoner-of-war camp and civilian internee camp in North Borneo and Sarawak, and was made into a film of the same name in 1950. She published seven books in all.
Early life
Agnes Jones Goodwillie Newton was born in Oak Park, Illinois. Her family moved to Hollywood, California, when she was very young. Her father was one of the founders of the Del Monte Company. One of her grandmothers was English. The family moved again when Agnes was ten, this time to the nearby beach community of Venice, California, for her younger brother Al's health.
She attended the University of California, Berkeley where she became a member of the Omicron Chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta. Upon graduation, Keith landed a job with the San Francisco Examiner. She covered stories including the 1925 case of 16 year-old flapper, Dorothy Ellingson, convicted of matricide. Eight months after starting her journalism career, she was attacked by an assailant who was convinced that the newspaper was persecuting him by printing Krazy Kat cartoons. She received serious head injuries which affected her memory. She also became seriously depressed, and after two years of illness her father sent her and her brother Al to Europe to recuperate. Returning refreshed to the States, Agnes decided to become a writer, but soon afterwards lost her eyesight for two years as a delayed result of her injuries. During this period she studied dancing, modelled clothes and 'did bits in the movies'.
Family life
In 1934, she married Henry G. Keith, known as "Harry Keith," an Englishman. He had been a friend of her brother Al when both boys had been at the same school in San Diego, and Agnes had first met him when she was eight years old. He had gone on to work for the government of North Borneo, and she had not seen him in a decade when he visited California while on leave in 1934. However, as soon as they re-met they decided to get married, and were wed three days later. Three months after their marriage, following an operation to cure Agnes's eyesight, they sailed for Borneo.
Their son, Henry George Newton Keith, was born on April 5, 1940. Their daughter Jean is mentioned, though not by name, in Keith's first book, Land Below the Wind, on page 174 of the first edition, dated 1939: "A picture stood on the table by us of our little girl at home in her party dress." On page 171, while discussing the small local boy, Usit with Harry, she says, "I'm afraid I'm too lazy to take on the job of being a parent again." Copies of White Man Returns are dedicated "To my children George and Jean". Jean was invited to the celebrations for the reissue of Land Below the Wind in Sabah on July 6, 2007.
Life in Borneo
Harry was Conservator of Forests and Director of Agriculture for the government of North Borneo under the Chartered Company, and was also Honorary Curator of the Sandakan (State) Museum. He had worked in Borneo since 1925, and was based in Sandakan. Agnes spent an idyllic five years at Sandakan, sometimes accompanying her husband on trips into the interior of the country. Harry persuaded her to write about her experiences and enter it in the 1939 Atlantic Monthly Non-Fiction Prize contest. The judges voted unanimously for her entry to win, and it was partly serialized in the magazine before being published in November of that year as Land Below the Wind. The book received favorable reviews: The Scotsman described it as "A delightful book ... It has abundant humour and a pervading charm ... An original and engaging description of a country and people of extraordinary interest."
The Keiths were on leave in Canada when war was declared on September 3, 1939. Harry was immediately ordered back to Borneo.