The Arabs.
8vo. 372 pp. With frontispiece portrait, 4 maps (1 folding) & 17 plates. Publisher's gilt cloth with chipped and spotted dustjacket.
€ 3,500.00
First edition of this overview of Arab history and culture work that draws upon the author's own experience in the region and includes some of T. E. Lawrence's exploits.
Inscribed on the front free endpaper in the year of publication: "To the Rt Hon and Mrs L.S. Amery, With respects, Bertram Thomas, May 1937".
Bertram Thomas's (1892-1950) "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 (who wrote a preface to one of his books) and by his successor Wilfred Thesiger, who found twenty years later that Thomas was remembered by the Bedouin as an honourable, brave, and tolerant man" (ODNB). Leopold Amery (1873-1955) served a Colonial Secretary as well as Secretary of State for India and Burma in Churchill's war ministry.
A few minor spots, but still a very good copy.
Macro 2186.