Stranger in the Forest
1988 book
Stranger in the Forest: On Foot Across Borneo (1988) is a travel book by American writer Eric Hansen, about a seven-month, 4000 km long journey (of which 2300 km on foot) through the heartland of Borneo in 1982. Hansen became one of the few westerners to walk across the island. He did so largely with the aid of local Penan, who took him away from the rivers, the most used transportation routes in Borneo, to walk through the jungle. The journey started in Marudi in Sarawak, Malaysia, at the northwest coast of the island. When, after an illegal border-crossing, he eventually emerged near the east coast in Kalimantan, Indonesia, the confrontation with western civilisation gave him such a culture shock that he turned around for another crossing of the island.
Summary
Preparation
Hansen had spent many years preparing for the journey, through research at the University of California, which also had a complete collection of the Sarawak Museum Journals from 1912 onwards. His aim was to cross the island, following old trade routes, collecting jungle products and medicinal plants of value, and exchanging these and western goods for what he needed. This was based on what he had learned during a visit six years earlier. But when he arrived it turned out he was completely unprepared and his source had not been to the highlands. The reason there were no passport checks there was that it was almost impossible to move through that uninhabited, wild, jungle-clad country.
The public source identifies “Stranger in the Forest” as 1988 book. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Stranger, Forest and book.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Stranger in the Forest”, the useful work is to connect “1988 book” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7621553. The first chronological checks are 1988, 1982 and 1912.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Stranger in the Forest” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.