Explorers Of The Western Himalayas 1820-1895

This omnibus volume combines When Men and Mountains Meet (1977) and its sequel, The Gilgit Game (LJ 3/1/79). The Western Himalayas provide a natural frontier to five nations; as far back as the 19th century, this region was considered strategically important. Keay's (The Honorable Company, Macmillan, 1994) book is a well-written, often humorous account of the 19th-century European (mainly British) explorers and adventurers lured by this inaccessible and lawless region. The book spans 75 years, beginning with the ill-fated William Moorcraft, a veterinarian in the service of the East India Company who arrived in the Himalayas in 1820, and ends with the men who were responsible for bringing the region of Chitral under British control in 1895. The biographical sketches are well researched, the list of sources covering several pages. Embellished with maps and period photographs, this book deserves a place in specialized collections and academic and large public libraries.?Ravi Shenoy, Hinsdale P.L., Ill.

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