"TO FREYA WITH FONDEST LOVE"

(STARK, Freya) MOOREHEAD, Caroline. Freya Stark. (Great Britain): Viking, (1985). Octavo, original gray paper boards, original dust jacket. $700.

First edition of this compelling biography of Middle Eastern traveler Freya Stark, inscribed in the year of publication by the author, journalist Caroline Moorehead, to Freya Stark: "with love and thank you Caroline. October 7 1985. To Freya with fondest love."

This biography of Middle Eastern traveler Freya Stark was written by a prominent journalist, Caroline Moorehead, who also co-edited Stark's letters. A war nurse and mountaineer, Freya Stark used a period of convalescence from a stomach ulcer to train as a governess, studying at the School of Oriental Studies in London. "In 1927 Stark lived in Lebanon for several months and travelled through Syria with Buddicom… She planned a journey to northern Persia after reading about the region at the British Museum. In 1929 she moved to Baghdad, where she went slumming in Arab clothing and was an outsider among priggish British expatriates. She gained acceptance after adventurous journeys to Lurestan and the Alamut district of Mazandaran, and the War Office made maps from her observations… In 1933 Stark returned to London to receive accolades as a female traveller. She was awarded the Back grant from the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and was the first woman to receive the Burton medal of the Royal Asiatic Society" (DNB). Published simultaneously with the New York Penguin edition. Part of the "Lives of Modern Women" series, edited by Emma Tennant.

A very nearly fine inscribed presentation copy with unparalleled provenance.