Softcover. London, Eland /Hippocrene Books, reprint, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 172 pages. Having learned to appreciate Muslim life while living in Pakistan, Peter Mayne settled down to live in the back streets of Marrakesh in the 1950s. Rather than watch from the shelter of a hotel terrace, he rented rooms, learned the language, made friends, and became embroiled in conspiratorial picnics, hashish-laced dinners and in the enchantments and misunderstandings of the street, with its festivals, love affairs, potions and gossip. By turns used, abused and cherished by his neighbors, Mayne wrote their letters for them and captured the essence of their lives in this affectionate and hilarious account. A new edition of a 1953 classic that captures the very essence Marrakesh and its people. Clean copy.
Hardcover. London, John Murray, 2nd pr., 1947, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 254 pages, index, b&w illustrations, double-page map. Light beige cloth, gilt lettering on spine, top of spine with fraying, light spotting to front cover otherwise clean. An illuminating record of travel in the Aden Protectorate in 1939 on the eve of World War II by a Dutch scholar of the region and it's people.
Hardcover. London, Travel Book Club, 1st, Book: Good, Hardcover, 233 pages, color frontispiece and 8 b&w plates by Mary Gordon West, endpapers map. Light shelfwear. No date but appears to be about 1940.
Hardcover. Boston, Geo. H. Ellis, 1st, 1895, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with bright gilt lettering, all edges gilt, 209 pages, b&w illustrations. Previous owner's stamp on front endpapers. Bright original 1895 edition.
Hardcover. NY, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 321 pages. In spring 2011, Anthony Shadid was one of four New York Times reporters captured in Libya, cuffed and beaten, as that country was seized by revolution. When he was freed, he went home. Not to Boston or Beirut--where he lives-- or to Oklahoma City, where his Lebanese-American family had settled and where he was raised. Instead, he returned to his great-grandfather's estate, a house that, over three years earlier, Shadid had begun to rebuild. House of Stone is the story of a battle-scarred home and a war correspondent's jostled spirit, and of how reconstructing the one came to fortify the other. In this poignant and resonant memoir, the author of the award-winning Night Draws Near creates a mosaic of past and present, tracing the house's renewal alongside his family's flight from Lebanon and resettlement in America. In the process, Shadid memorializes a lost world, documents the shifting Middle East, and provides profound insights into this volatile landscape. House of Stone is an unforgettable meditation on war, exile, rebirth, and the universal yearning for home. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Beirut Lebanon, American University of Beirut, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a dust jacket with light fading to edges, 315 pages. Daniel Bliss was the first President of the Syrian Protestant College (now The American University of Beirut) which opened it's doors in 1866. In the early 1870s land was purchased to construct new buildings under his supervision. These letters were written by Bliss to his wife who returned to Amherst, Massachusetts for health reasons. Written in 1873-74, his descriptions of mid-nineteenth century Beirut are illuminating, filled with interesting everyday details. Clean copy.
Softcover. Austin TX, University Of Texas Press, reprint, 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 400+ pages. A collection of autobiographical and biographical writings by and about Middle Eastern women. Many of the selections have been translated by the editors from Arabic, Persian or French. Illustrated with b/w photos.
Hardcover. NY, Macmillan, 1st, 1958, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket. In 1483 Friar Felix Fabri, a Dominican brother from Ulm, Germany, left his priory on two occasions to visit the Holy Land. this account chronicles the homeward journey of the Friar's second trip. Miss Prescott draws from a detailed daily log the Friar kept and supplements his description of the pilgrimage with her own vivid and colorful observations. B&w illustrations, index. Small name on inside front cover, otherwise clean.
Hardcover. The Siamanto Press, Reprint, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 438 pages. Hardcover. B/w illustrations throughout. Purple endpapers. Dust jacket unclipped, excellent. Black cover boards, white title on spine. Very good condition, just one small spot on bottom edge. Pages clean, binding tight, spine straight.
Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1st U.S., 1991, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 250 pages. Light blue and tan cloth cover, gilt lettering, very little wear. Dust jacket has minor wear to edges. Inside is bright and clean. A nice copy.