Fond Memories of a Young Man in Old China

About the Book

Jack Sherwood’s memoir about his experiences in China as an employee of the Standard Oil Company provides the reader with a spell-binding tale of life lived under extreme political tensions in that country from 1929 to 1942. Since this was his very first job after graduating from Colgate University, Sherwood was not eligible for a position in the company’s headquarters in Shanghai. Instead he was sent off into the hinterlands, north and west of Shanghai, where life-threatening dangers were his daily companion. During his tenure with the oil company, he witnessed the Japanese invasion of China and its destruction of Nanking. He also suffered in the aftermath of that  invasion, for he was imprisoned by the Japanese as a spy. He managed to survive that ordeal, but unfortunately several of his fellow Standard Oil colleagues did not. 

About the Author

Hermine Weigel Williams has held teaching positions in the fields of musicology and religious studies at Vassar College and Hamilton College. She also has been a Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Musicology in New Zealand.

Dr. Williams is best known for her work related to opera history and performance. She co-authored with Donald Jay Grout the third and fourth editions of A Short History of Opera; contributed a volume to, and served as assistant editor for, the Operas of Alessandro Scarlatti series; and received a commission from San Francisco Opera for a performing edition of Scarlatti’s Il trionfo dell’onore. Recent publications include Sibelius and His Masonic Music; Francesco Bartolomeo Conti: His Life and Music; Thomas Hastings: An Introduction to His Life and Music; and Therese von Jakob Robinson: A Biographical Portrait.