The Thirsty Land

(London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1954). 8vo; original red boards, lettered in black on spine; pictorial dustwrapper; pp. 192 including index; frontispiece portrait, black-and-white plates. Dustwrapper somewhat edgeworn and rubbed, with archival tape repairs to reverse; earlier owner's name signed on front pastedown; a little foxing. Good to very good condition. "This is an unpretentious account of a light-hearted journey across the great Thirstland of southern Africa in the winter of 1952-53. The old Boer pioneers named the area well, for hundreds of them died of thirst in the parched wilderness. Our search in the waste of the Namib Desert and Kalahari, aided by the new tools of science, was for information and underground water resources. We visualized new towns and great cattle ranches on a Texas pattern, but knew that everything has to start in a small way." .