Arabian Sands. by Thesiger, Wilfred - 1959

London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1959. First edition, second printing of the author's masterpiece. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by Wilfred Thesiger on the title page. Fine in a very good price-clipped dust jacket with some rubbing and wear to the extremities. Map unopened in the inside pocket of the rear pastedown. Though educated at Eton and Oxford, Wilfred Thesiger was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life-"the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets." In the spirit of T. E. Lawrence, he set out to explore the deserts of Arabia, traveling among peoples who had never seen a European and considered it their duty to kill Christian infidels. His now-classic account is invaluable to understanding the modern Middle East. "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" (The Daily Telegraph, London).