Man and Mystery in Asia
London: Edward Arnold, 1924. Third Impression. Hardcover. xii, 295, [1], 16 pages, Frontis illustration. Map at rear endpaper. Cover has some wear and soiling. Somewhat cocked. Some endpaper discoloration. Some page foxing and discoloration. Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski (27 May 1876 – 3 January 1945) was a Polish writer, explorer, university professor, and anti-Communist political activist. He is best known for his books about Lenin and the Russian Civil War in which he participated. After the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) Ossendowski moved to Harbin in Manchuria, where he founded a Central Technical Research Laboratory, a Russian-financed institution for development of the ore deposits in the area. At the same time, he headed the local branch of the Russian Geographic Society in Vladivostok. As such he made numerous trips to Korea, Sakhalin, Ussuri and the shores of the Bering Strait. In Manchuria, he also became one of the leaders of the considerable Polish diaspora. At the outbreak of the Russian Civil War, he also got involved in the counterrevolutionary Russian government led by Supreme Governor Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak. He served at various posts, among others as an intelligence officer, an envoy to the intervention corps from the United States and an assistant to the Polish 5th Rifle Division of Maj. Walerian Czuma. In 1918 he was responsible for the transfer of many tsarist and White Russian documents to the Entente. In late 1921 he published his first book in English: Beasts, Men and Gods. The description of his travels during the Russian Civil War became a striking success and a bestseller. After the end of the Russian Civil War, Ossendowski continued to travel to different parts of the world, and after each journey he published a book or two. In the interwar period, he was considered the creator of a distinct genre called the traveling novel. With over 70 books published in Poland and translated almost 150 times into 20 other languages, Ossendowski was also the second most popular Polish author abroad, after Henryk Sienkiewicz. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Nomads, Tartar, Sikhota-Alin, Siberia, Altai, Kirghiz, Shaman, Hanoom, Expedition, Travel, Adventure
[Book #81805]
Price: $50.00