THE DESERT ROAD TO TURKESTAN.

Boston 1929, Little. Black cloth, very good, 373p., index, appendix, end paper maps, route summary stage by stage, book plate, 15 x 23.5 cm. FIRST U.S. EDITION S C A R C E COLLATION: With frontis, 21 photos, 3 folding maps, route plan, 27 text illustrations. * The narrative of an exciting overland journey from Peking to India. Most of the road was through desolate and isolated desert which traversed Mongolia. With commentaries on caravan history and trade in Mongolia. Fascinating stop-by-stop work covering the winding road, over the borders of Alashan, Camel Men, dunes, deserts, spears, meres in sand, Edsin Gol, Black Gobi, corpse caravans and ghosts, Dead Mongol Pass, the oasis of the thrid state, ordeal by snow. * Copious appendices of the route, detail commentaries for each stop, location & c. Excellent photos of people, places and the treck in progress. * An exciting and wonderful odyssey, primary resource. The companion to this is TURKISTAN REUNION, by his wife Eleanor H. Lattimore, who went to meet Owen in Central Asia. * Lattimore was a well-respected scholar who was fluent in both Chinese and Mongolian. No small feat at the time. He was also well-underwritten by some of the most famous institutions who sponsored his research and Central Asian travels. His books are authoritative, fascinating and give keen insights to the complex relationships in Central Asia, the political forces, the cultural variations of the divergent peoples and the geography. His works are a valuable resource for areas largely neglected at the time mostly because the area was closed for such a long time. Against the odds, he won his way into Mongolia and Central Asia and did his research while traveling in the most primitive areas by the traditional camel, donkey and yak cart. He talked to the people, understood their ways and culture. His record is a valuable insight to who and what was going from the 1920's down to the 1940's. * Lattimore was a lecturer at Harvard University, researcher for many years at the Social Science Research Council, Harvard-Yenching Institute, and the Guggenheim Foundation as well as at the Institue of Pacific Relations. He was also the Director of the Walter Hines Page School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University. * Scans can be sent by email. .