Christians until he reaches the sea, sane and healthy again. Now an old man, his only ambition is to be buried with Rima's ashes. Reflecting back, he believes neither God nor man can forgive his sins, but that gentle Rima would, provided he has forgiven himself. Background Hudson based Rima and her lost tribe on persistent rumours about a tribe of white people who lived in the mountains. Temple paintings often showed light-skinned people, and Spanish Conquistadors were at first thought to be gods. Green Mansions also features some cryptozoological concepts such as Curupita (Curupira) and Didi purportedly representing giant apes unknown by science. Many authors of the time also recounted "lost worlds" and "lost tribes", the most successful being H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard and Arthur Conan Doyle. Hudson's book has endured as literature because of its evocative and lyrical prose, and his naturalist's keen vision of the jungle. Rima also exemplifies the "natural man", a philosophical notion put forth by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and others, that someone raised away from corrupting civilisation would be naturally pure of heart and attuned to their environment. Tarzan, raised by apes, and Mowgli, raised by wolves, are Rima's literary cousins. In the Classics Illustrated comic book adaptation, the editor says, "We also feel that Hudson wants to tell us in this story that, long before this present meat-eating and destructive race took over all the world, there was a race of beings on the earth – beautiful, innocent, and bird-like, who lived in peace with nature and themselves, and of whom Rima and her mother were the last". The plot of the book resembles that in Hudson's 1887 novel A Crystal Age. Book publication The book was originally published in 1904. A new edition of this book published in the United States in 1912 with a foreword by John Galsworthy. It was one of the first books published by Alfred A. Knopf and their first bestseller. The book went through nine printings by 1919 and had sold over 20,000 copies. This also created interest in Hudson's other titles. Film, TV, theatrical and comic book adaptations In 1937, Louis Gruenberg (1884–1964) composed a radio opera Green Mansions, which used a musical saw in the score. In 1951, The Gilberton Co. released a comic book adaptation of Green Mansions as issue number 90 in their Classics Illustrated series. Direct quotes from