Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea and the Holy Land

Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970. First Thus. Hardcover. Near fine/near fine. Frederick Catherwood. A near fine first edition thus, newly edited with an introduction by Victor Wolfgang von Hagen. Illustrations by Catherwood. Rust colored cloth boards. . Small smudge on bottom edge of book, otherwise fine. Dust jacket is very good plus, showing mild shelf wear at head and tail, and is price-clipped. Maps, illustrations and index. 473 pp. Octavo. Perhaps best known for his discovery of the Mayan ruins in the Yucatan, lawyer-turned-archaeologist John Lloyd Stephens (1805–1852) was the author of a number of highly praised travel books. The present volume, his first effort in the genre, received wide acclaim from reviewers, including Edgar Allan Poe, who found it ''written with a freshness of manner evincing manliness of feeling.''Conversational and unpretentious, the book is a delightful narrative of the author's year-long journey through the Middle East, incorporating detailed observations of such architectural marvels as the Pyramids, the temples of Karnak, the red-rock city of Petra and more, and offering charming accounts of a Turkish bath, how to catch a crocodile, the wardrobe of a Nubian damsel, a night in a tomb, the hospitality of the Arabs, desert horses, Easter in Jerusalem, and much more.Enhanced by superb illustrations by Frederick Catherwood, this Stephens volume will delight armchair travelers..." ---BOL