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Arabian Sands
by Thesiger, Wilfred
- Used
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Original cloth, spine gilt and with some rubbing to the head and foot, near fine, some spotting to rear board, not affecting map
- Seller
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New York, New York, United States
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About This Item
London: Longmans, 1959. First edition. 46 plates, 8 maps to the text & folding map in pocket. xvi, 326 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Original cloth, spine gilt and with some rubbing to the head and foot, near fine, some spotting to rear board, not affecting map, in slightly faded dust-jacket with some shelfwear and spotting near flap hinges. First edition. 46 plates, 8 maps to the text & folding map in pocket. xvi, 326 pp. 1 vols. 8vo. "I went to Southern Arabia only just in time." Signed on the title page.
Arabian Sands is Thesiger's first and most important work, recounting his crossing of the Empty Quarter under the aegis of the Middle East Anti-Locust Unit: first in 1946-7, on a 2000 mile journey that began and ended at Salala on the south coast, then again almost immediately in 1947, departing Manwakh well in Yemen and visited at Liwa Oasis and then to Abu Dhabi town. This included a brief imprisonment in Saudi Arabia. Arabian Sands includes accounts of both these crossings and is illustrated with Thesiger's own dramatic photographs. Although brief reports of the journey were published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society in the late 1940s, it was only through the efforts of his friend Graham Watson and the publisher Mark Longman that Thesiger was persuaded to write a book-length account.
Thesiger, who had a revulsion to modern life, immersed himself in the country, made friends with the Arabs and traveled on foot and by camel. He states boldly in the introduction to this work, whatever their results "[future explorers] will never know the spirit of the land nor the greatness of the Arabs."
Arabian Sands was received enthusiastically in the press and Thesiger himself thought it "his finest book" (ODNB). The Daily Telegraph stated: "Following worthily in the tradition of Burton, Lawrence, Philby and Thomas, [Arabian Sands] is, very likely, the book about Arabia to end all books about Arabia." Indeed, St John Philby described Thesiger as "probably the greatest of all explorers" (Maitland, 380) and Sir John Glubb regarded him "the last, and certainly one of the greatest, of the British travellers among the Arabs" (ibid.). Alexander Maitland, Wilfred Thesiger: the Life of the Great Explorer (2006)
Arabian Sands is Thesiger's first and most important work, recounting his crossing of the Empty Quarter under the aegis of the Middle East Anti-Locust Unit: first in 1946-7, on a 2000 mile journey that began and ended at Salala on the south coast, then again almost immediately in 1947, departing Manwakh well in Yemen and visited at Liwa Oasis and then to Abu Dhabi town. This included a brief imprisonment in Saudi Arabia. Arabian Sands includes accounts of both these crossings and is illustrated with Thesiger's own dramatic photographs. Although brief reports of the journey were published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society in the late 1940s, it was only through the efforts of his friend Graham Watson and the publisher Mark Longman that Thesiger was persuaded to write a book-length account.
Thesiger, who had a revulsion to modern life, immersed himself in the country, made friends with the Arabs and traveled on foot and by camel. He states boldly in the introduction to this work, whatever their results "[future explorers] will never know the spirit of the land nor the greatness of the Arabs."
Arabian Sands was received enthusiastically in the press and Thesiger himself thought it "his finest book" (ODNB). The Daily Telegraph stated: "Following worthily in the tradition of Burton, Lawrence, Philby and Thomas, [Arabian Sands] is, very likely, the book about Arabia to end all books about Arabia." Indeed, St John Philby described Thesiger as "probably the greatest of all explorers" (Maitland, 380) and Sir John Glubb regarded him "the last, and certainly one of the greatest, of the British travellers among the Arabs" (ibid.). Alexander Maitland, Wilfred Thesiger: the Life of the Great Explorer (2006)
Synopsis
"First published in Great Britain by Longmans, Green 1959, first published in the United States of America by E.P. Dutton 1959"--T.p. verso. "Reprinted with a second preface 1991"--T.p. verso. Includes index. "Gift, April 2007"
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Details
- Bookseller
- James Cummins Bookseller
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 345984
- Title
- Arabian Sands
- Author
- Thesiger, Wilfred
- Format/Binding
- 46 plates, 8 maps to the text & folding map in pocket. xvi, 326 pp. 1 vols. 8vo
- Book Condition
- Used - Original cloth, spine gilt and with some rubbing to the head and foot, near fine, some spotting to rear board, not affecting map
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First edition
- Publisher
- Longmans
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1959
- Keywords
- Middle East
- Bookseller catalogs
- History, Travel & Geography;
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- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
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