My Life as an Explorer.

HEDIN, Sven.

Item Number: 111419

New York: Garden City Publishing, 1925.

First edition of this autobiography by the famed explorer. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Translated by Alfhild Huebsch. From the library of James Stephen “Steve” Fossett with his bookplate to the pastedown. American businessman and record-setting aviator Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in 2002 in his 10-story high balloon Spirit of Freedom. He completed the 2002 trip in 13 days, 8 hours, and 33 minutes and set records for both the Longest Distance Flown Solo in a Balloon and Fastest Balloon Flight Around the World. Fossett was also one of sailing’s most prolific distance record holders set the Absolute World Speed Record for airships with a Zeppelin NT in 2004. He received numerous awards and honors throughout his career including aviation’s highest award, the Gold Medal of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which he was awarded in 2002. Fossett disappeared on September 3, 2007 while flying a light aircraft over the Great Basin Desert, between Nevada and California.

Swedish explorer, geographer and illustrator Sven Hedin made four major expeditionary trips to Asia thoughout his lifetime. In the first, from 1893 to 1897, he visited the Pamir Mountains, traveled through the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang Region of Western China and across the Taklamakan Desert where he visited the 1500 year old abandoned cities of Dandan Oilik and Kara Dung. In April of 1896 he discovered Lake Bosten, one of the largest inland bodies of water in Central Asia.