The First Witness: A Companion Prequel and The Lost World (Annotated): A Maple White Prequel Novella and the Original Classic Novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Before the expedition, there was a man. Before the legend, there was a death. Before Challenger proved the impossible, Maple White paid for the proof with his life.

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, Maple White is a ghost—an American artist mentioned in passing, whose skeleton and sketch are found on a prehistoric plateau deep in the Amazon. A convenient plot device. A footnote.

But every footnote was once someone’s whole life.

The First Witness gives that life back. Robert Walker’s companion novella follows Maple White from his San Francisco studio in 1897—where he struggles with a marriage strained by ambition and a career stalled by creative paralysis—through the sweltering chaos of rubber-boom Manaus, up an unnamed river, and finally to the top of an impossible cliff where dinosaurs still walk and flying reptiles still darken the sky.

What he finds there is beyond wonder. What it costs him is everything.

This special edition includes:

• Part One: The First Witness — Robert Walker’s original novella, a story of art, obsession, and sacrifice that transforms a throwaway character into an unforgettable human being
• Part Two: The Lost World — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s complete, unabridged 1912 classic, featuring Professor Challenger’s legendary expedition

Read the prequel first, and when Challenger’s team discovers a skeleton in a cave, you will know whose it is. When they find a sketch that proves the impossible, you will know the hand that drew it.

Or read the classic first, as generations have, and then return to discover the hidden story that Doyle left untold.

A note on the text: The Lost World is presented in its original form. Some language and attitudes reflect the era in which Doyle wrote and do not represent modern values.