Seven Years in Tibet.

HARRER, Heinrich.

Item Number: 588

London: Rupert Davis, 1953.

First edition and first English translation preceding the American Edition by one year. Octavo, original blue cloth. Signed by Harrer on the title page. Near fine in a very good dust jacket.

Seven Years in Tibet is an adventure classic that recounts Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer's 1943 escape from a British internment camp in India, his daring trek across the Himalayas, and his happy sojourn in Tibet, then, as now, a remote land little visited by foreigners. Warmly welcomed, he eventually became tutor to the Dalai Lama, teenaged god-king of the theocratic nation. The author's vivid descriptions of Tibetan rites and customs capture its unique traditions before the Chinese invasion in 1950, which prompted Harrer's departure. "One of the grandest and most incredible adventure stories I have ever read." (Santha Rama Rau, The New York Times Book Review)