Seven Years in Tibet

New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc, 1954. 1st/Book Club Edition. Hardcover. Good/Fair. 314, illus., map, weakness to rear board, pencil notation inside front flyleaf, DJ soiled and scuffed: small tears, edges worn. Heinrich Harrer (6 July 1912 - 7 January 2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, and author. He was a member of the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland. He wrote the books Seven Years in Tibet (1952) and The White Spider (1959). The author escaped from a British internment camp in India during World War II and his dramatic trek through rugged Himalayan passes to sanctuary in the Forbidden City of Lhasa. In 1948, Harrer became a salaried official of the Tibetan government, translating foreign news and acting as the Court photographer. Harrer first met the 14th Dalai Lama when he was summoned to the Potala Palace and asked to make a film about ice skating, which Harrer had introduced to Tibet. A strong friendship developed between the two that would last the rest of their lives. This book tells of the author's autobiographical experience escaping from a British internment camp in northern India during World War II to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa where he established a strong relationship as a friend and tutor to the young Dalai Lama. Seven years later he was forced to flee Tibet when the Chinese overtook the country. It is his experiences during those seven years that give the story it's name. Mr. Harrer was born in 1912 and passed away in 2006 at the age of 93. In 1997 a major motion picture was made based n this book, starring Brad Pitt as Heinrich Harrer and David Thewlis as his companion, Peter Aufschnaiter.