Danger My Ally

“Danger My Ally” was not only the autobiography of F.A. Mitchell-Hedges, it was also the first time that he related the story of the skull – including an image. Remarkably, the references to the skull were removed from the US edition, published in 1955. One reviewer described the book as follows: “F Mitchell-Hedges account of his life in the earlier part of the 20th Century is a fascinating and gripping tale of a man unhappy with the post Victorian lifestyle of the world about him. He decides to explore the jungles of Central America. His journeys take him across several continents where he meets the famous and infamous. He, quite simply, does it all!!!
This man is a true hero. Explorer, expert fisherman, archaeologist and philosopher. His discoveries have changed the viewpoints of our conceptions relating to the evolution of man. Indiana Jones wouldn’t even be allowed to carry this mans luggage.” The book was republished in 1995.

Text from the insert from Danger My Ally, by F A Mitchell Hedges, 1954:
“To see part of the world that no man has trodden; to own a treasure that no one else possesses; to live excitingly and to enjoy this - this for me is fun.” these are the words of F.A. Mitchell Hedges, once penniless boy, now millionaire explorer collector, Pancho Villa’s fighting General, a man whose adventures are as weird and varied as the items in his museum. Lizards eight feet long, with blue heads, and black ringed bodies; crabs three feet long with claws like a man’s fist - these are some of the creatures he has seen and photographed. Shrunken heads, crystals skulls, poisoned skeletons, priceless jewels - these are some of his prized collector’s pieces. His journeying into unknown counties, where he discovered traces of pre flood civilisations, to the Indian Ocean where he fought and caught giant fish weighting up to two and half tons - these and more are described here by a man to whom the British Museum and other institutions pay homage for his prehistoric finds. But in his autobiography, this modern Odysseus in addition to telling the story of his experiences in exploration, archaeology, and deep-sea fishing, talks frankly on more controversial subjects as well. Mitchell Hedges is a man who has never lived according to the rules and conventions laid down by society and has often quite blatantly defied them, and so he occasionally had to join battle, not only with the elements and monsters of the sea, but with his fellow-explorers and those whom he called “armchair scientists”. In this book for the first time, he exposes the background of his struggles against apathy, misrepresentation and exploitation. Danger My Ally is an altogether fascinating book.

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Skull inspirations

Since the 1950s, a number of books have tackled crystal skulls. In 1972, Sibley S. Morrill published “Ambrose Bierce, F.A. Mitchell-Hedges and the Crystal Skull”. “The Skull speaks”, published in 1985, was nevertheless the veritable rise to fame of the Mitchell-Hedges skull, based on a series of trance communications received through the skull. Since 1985, authors like Robert Temple and Frank Dorland, who studied the skull personally, have added to books in which the skull is prominently mentioned.

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Other books

“Danger My Ally” wasn’t Mitchell-Hedges’ first book. White Tiger was a novel – though some might argue it is the truth, masked as fiction – that appeared in 1931. It is but one of a number of books that he – and his friends – wrote, exposing Western Europe to the wonders of the jungles and the people of Central America.
In his turn, both the man and the skull went on to inspire other writers – especially novelists – to weave his account into their scenarios.

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