Arabia Felix First Edition - T.E. Lawrence - Bauman Rare Books

Arabia Felix

T.E. LAWRENCE | Bertram THOMAS

Item#: 107051 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Arabia Felix

Arabia Felix

Arabia Felix

"THOMAS' FIRST CROSSING OF THE EMPTY QUARTER… ASSURED HIM A PERMANENT PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN EXPLORATION OF ARABIA": 1932 FIRST EDITION OF BERTRAM THOMAS' ARABIA FELIX, WITH PHOTOGRAPHS AND MAPS

(LAWRENCE, T.E.) THOMAS, Bertram. Arabia Felix. London: Jonathan Cape, 1932. Octavo, original brown cloth, uncut, original dust jacket.

First edition of Thomas' fascinating narrative of his pioneering trip across the Rub al Khali, the "Empty Quarter" of the Arabian peninsula—the largest sand desert in the world—with an introduction by T.E. Lawrence, illustrated with many photographic plates, charts, diagrams, and three maps (one folding, printed in color).

Thomas was the first documented westerner to cross the Rub al-Khali or "Empty Quarter," the largest sand desert in the world, which spans parts of modern-day Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. "In October 1930, Thomas slipped away in the middle of the night from he port of Muscat and (hitching a lift, by arrangement, on a passing British warship) arrived at Dhufar, on the Indian Ocean (southern) coast of Arabia, from where he intended to commence his south-north crossing of the empty quarter. After waiting some months for his guides (who were involved in desert hostilities) he eventually set out with a small camel caravan but no promise of protection from the warring and predatory tribes of the interior. He emerged 58 days later at Doha, on the Persian Gulf. The Royal Geographical Society in London promptly awarded him their founder's medal, and other learned societies around the world followed suit… Thomas's first crossing of the empty quarter, albeit by the shortest and easiest route, assured him a permanent place in the history of European exploration of Arabia. He was admired by T.E. Lawrence and by his successor Wilfred Thesiger, who found 20 years later that Thomas was remembered by the Bedouin as an honorable, brave, and tolerant man" (ODNB). Indeed, T.E. Lawrence penned the Introduction to Arabia Felix, with the aid of George Bernard Shaw, according to Lawrence's bibliographer Philip O'Brien. O'Brien A155. Small bookseller label to rear pastedown.

Book fine, dust jacket with minor toning to spine and a few short closed tears, near-fine.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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