Arabia Felix, The Danish Expedition of 1761 - 1767

Arabia Felix, The Danish Expedition of 1761 - 1767, Hansen, Thorkild. Translated by James and Kathleen McFarlane. Published by Harper and Row, New York, 1962. First Edition. 8vo up to 9½" tall., 381pp., index, illustrated with maps and black and white plates. Turquoise cloth boards with gilt titles. Bookplate to pastedown, name to versus of contents page, light outer edge toning and otherwise contents in fine condition; dustjacket has tiny chips and tears.

A true story of a scientific expedition gone disastrously awry. On a winter morning in 1761 six men leave Copenhagen by sea—a botanist, a philologist, an astronomer, a doctor, an artist, and their manservant—an ill-assorted band of men who dislike and distrust one another from the start. These are the members of the Danish expedition to Arabia Felix, as Yemen was then known, the first organized foray into a corner of the world unknown to Europeans. The expedition made its way to Turkey and Egypt, by which time its members were already actively seeking to undercut and even kill one another, before disappearing into the harsh desert that was their destination. Nearly seven years later a single survivor returned to Denmark to find himself forgotten and all the specimens that had been sent back ruined by neglect.