Books published by publisher The Viking Press, Inc., NY

Arabian Sands has never been out of print since it was first published, to great critical acclaim, in 1959. This new edition contains all the original photographs. With this book Wilfred Thesiger took his place among the few great Arabian travellers - not only as an explorer but as a writer. Doughty, Lawrence, Bertram Thomas and St John Philby preceded him but, as St John Philby himself said, 'The crowning touches have been placed on this exploratory activity in Arabia by Wilfred Thesiger, who is probably the greatest of all the explorers...' Arabian Sands covers the five years ending in 1950 which, with the exception of brief interruptions only, Thesiger spent in and around the Empty Quarter, the half million square miles of one of the cruellest deserts of the world. Before him, no other traveller, European or Arab - apart from the Bedu who live there - had twice dared to cross those empty wastes. Travelling without European companions and living as an Arab, Thesiger's experience and

Dust jacket notes: “With her own special witchery, Shirley Jackson has once again fashioned a strange, terrible, and beautiful tale. From the very first page, a mystery hangs over the three people living in the big old house on the hill. Shunned by the villagers, they live their private life behind closed doors. As their story quietly and deftly unfolds, the reader is led into a situation both startling and macabre. The drama of its denouement, with its unforeseen aftermath, has the quality of a horror tale disguised in the most deceptive innocence. But telling the ‘story’ of a book by Shirley Jackson is as meaningless as trying to describe in words what is conveyed to the eye by a surrealist painter. For it is not just the subject about which she chooses to write, or even her ability as an immensely gifted storyteller, that distinguishes her work; it is her unique vision, illuminating the familiar.”