[2 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS]: AUTOGRAPH LETTER TO J. B. POND'S SECRETARY AND A 2-PAGE AUTOGRAPH LETTER TO POND, BOTH SIGNED BY ENGLISH EXPLORER ROSITA FORBES, TOGETHER WITH A COPY OF HER 1925-26 CONTRACT. by Forbes, Rosita. (1890-1967). Noted English explorer and travel writer - 1925.

London: July 30 and August 12, 1925., 1925.. Very good. - Letter penned in black ink & filling 1-1/2 sides of a 5-3/4 inch high by 4-3/4 inch wide sheet of cream letterhead with her London address printed in raised lettering in black at top right of the recto. Signed "Rosita Forbes" There is a paper-clip mark to the top edge of the letterhead with a rust stain to the verso. Together with the second letter: Engadin, Switzerland: August 12, 1925. Letter penned in blue ink & filling 2 sides of a 4-sided sheet of Hotel Bernina 7 inch high by 5-3/4 inch wide letterhead with the hotel's Swiss address at the top of the 1st side. Signed "Rosita Forbes. Both letters are folded once for mailing. Also with unsigned carbon copies of Pond's August 27 reply and the contract for the 1925-26 season. The letters are in very good condition.

On July 30 Forbes writes to Pond's secretary saying that she is shortly off to Switzerland and asking her to send Forbes the contract for the 1925-26 season and other information. "You see I write to you, sure of a speedy answer, most capable of ladies!" On August 12 Forbes replies to a letter from Pond expressing her confusion about who is supposed to be providing him with publicity material for a promotional article. The carbon copies of Pond's replies to both her letters include the contract and a cover letter explaining the publicity situation and saying that he doesn't want to fix a starting date for her tour just yet. "Things are not going as well for you as I had hoped, and instead of having you here for a long time it might be more sensible to have you remain in England just as long as business there is good and to stay here for only a sufficient length of time to get what business there is."

Though Rosita Forbes started traveling at an early age, following her marriage to Major Ronald Forbes, it wasn't until after a nervous breakdown following her husband's death in World War I that her travels started in earnest. At first she served as an ambulance driver in France during the war and subsequently traveled around the world "by way of American Hawaii, Papua, Sumatra, Java, Cochin China, Siam, and China". In China she was taken prisoner during the revolution and ended up doing Red Cross work for the Chinese army. In 1919, she resumed her travels through Africa and the Middle East and was in Jerusalem for the riots of 1920. "From here her journeys are chronicled in her lectures....After her return from Kufra she met and married Col. Arthur McGrath of the British War Office...." Astonishingly, all this had been accomplished by the time she was thirty years old.

Rosita Forbes described her journey around the world in her first book, "Unconducted Wanderers" (1919). Disguised as a Moslem, she traveled across the Libyan desert to the oasis of Kufara from 1920-21. This journey is described by her in "The Secrets of the Sahara Kufara" (1924).