Harold R.P. Dickson | The Arab of the Desert. London, 1949, First Edition, inscribed by the Author, original cloth

Harold R.P. Dickson

The Arab of the Desert. A glimpse into Badawin life in Kuwait and Sau'di Arabia. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1949

FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR (see provenance), 8vo (232 x 152mm.), half-title, photographic portrait frontispiece of the ruler of Kuwait, numerous photographic and other plates, some coloured, illustrations in text, 6 folding genealogies and 9 folding maps and plans on 7 sheets loose as issued in pocket at end, errata slip, publisher's orange cloth, flat spine lettered in gilt, one plan frayed at edges, some spotting, binding rubbed

Colonel Dickson (1881-1959) was born in Beirut and moved as a baby with his family to Damascus where his father was British Consul. As an infant he was foster-mothered by a Badawin (Bedouin) woman of the desert, and thus became a blood-brother of her tribe, the important and aristocratic 'Anizah. Dickson himself became a British administrator in the Middle East from the 1920s until the 1940s. "Colonel Dickson joins the very remarkable group of English men and women who have interpreted the magic of far Arabia - Burton, Doughty, Lawrence, Bertram Thomas, St. John Philby, Gertrude Bell, Freya Stark" (publisher's blurb).

St John Philby in his review of this book stated "There are few Europeans, if indeed any, who know the Arab as well as Dickson... [an] immense and valuable labour of love, which is admirably illustrated by some excellent photographs and many first-class drawings and coloured plates. These, with the plans, sketches and maps in the cover pocket, will repay careful study. Colonel Dickson is to be congratulated on an outstanding contribution to our knowledge of The Arab of the Desert."

LITERATURE:

Reviewed by H.St.J.B. Philby, 'An Encyclopaedia of the Desert Arab', The Geographical Journal, Vol. 115, No. 4/6 (Apr.-Jun., 1950), pp. 231-233

PROVENANCE:

D.M. Lawrence, ownership inscription, and inscription by the author "to Miss D.M. Lawrence with every good wish from H.R.P. Dickson, Kuwait, 2 April 1951".