Seven Years In Tibet

Seven Years in Tibet is an autobiography written by Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer based on his real life experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951. The story takes place during the Second World War and the interim period before the Communist Chinese People's Liberation Army moved into Tibet in 1950. It narrates the true story of an Austrian prisoner of war who successfully escaped his British captors in India in 1944 on the third attempt. His escape route led him across Tibet. In 1943, Heinrich Harrer, escaped captivity and made his way through the Himalayan passes to the Forbidden City of Lhasa in Tibet and finally lived for years in Lhasa becoming a tutor to the Dalai Lama. Seven Years in Tibet was first published in Germany before being acquired by Dutton.

Dutton New York published a 1st edition, 1st print in 1954 as a hardcover. Publisher's salmon-colored cloth with black Tibetan image on front cover and lettered in black on the spine. Illustrated with 40 pages of photographs. The original dust jacket features a picture of Tibetan monks and a $5.00. The Book of the Month Club edition published shortly after the first edition does not have the $5.00 price stamp. 

Limited Edition Club, New York published a limited Edition Hardcover encased in a red clamshell box with a gilt-lettered morocco spine label in 1993. Bound in pure Bure white silk imported from India with a Tibetan good luck charm blind stamped in the center of the front cover. This limited edition included a special introduction by the Dalai Lama for whom Harrer became the unofficial secular tutor when the Tibetan spiritual guide was fourteen.