Gertrude Bell: The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914

by Rosemary O'Brien (Editor), Gertrude Bell (Photographer)

Overview

Along with Bell's own photographs, O'Brien has provided us an unprecedented first access to excerpts of the Bell/Richard Doughty-Wyllie love letters, the married British army officer with whom she was in love and for whom her diaries were written.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815606727
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	11/28/2000
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.15(d)

About the Author

Rosemary O'Brien is a journalist and editor. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Table of Contents

	Illustrations	ix
	Preface	xi
	Acknowledgments	xv
	Gertrude Bell en Route	3
	Gertrude Bell's Itinerary, 1913-1914	38
	Doughty-Wylie Diaries	43
	Appendixes
A.	Diaries 1913-1914	137
B.	Ibrahim's Daftar	245
	Glossary	249
	Works Cited	253
	Index	257

Interviews

Gertrude Bell has been the subject of many books and a Herzog film. These diaries offer another access point into her fascinating life.

Editorial Reviews

Three notebooks, first published here, record the British adventuress' journey to northern Arabia and foreshadow her service to the Empire in Baghdad during the 1920s. Editor Rosemary O'Brien has included Bell's photographs and excerpts of lover letters between her and her married lover, for whom she wrote her diaries. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Gertrude Bell was an English woman who lived an extraordinary life of adventure. She rode with bandits, braved desert shamals, was captured by Bedouins, and sojourned in a harem. The counselor to kings and prime ministers, her illustrious colleagues included Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. Very highly recommended reading for women's studies, and 20th century studies reading lists and library collections, Gertrude Bell: The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914 is wonderfully illustrated with her photography and exemplifies her elegant, vibrant prose, as well as documenting her on of the 20th Century's most daring, resourceful, independent, and larger-than-life characters.

O'Brien includes both diaries and enlivens them with truly outstanding examples of some of the 6000 photographs Bell tookduring her life in the East.

Hudson Review

Bell's admirers will be grateful to O'Brien for this account, the hazardous journey that earned Bell the Royal Geographical medal.

International History Review

No European had ventured in Arabia's sands for 20 years, and her notes give the reader a unique sense of the nomadic Bedouin who inhabited them and the sometimes beautiful, sometimes terrifying terrain they traveled across.

Middle East Journal

This is a handsome book, a pleasing read, and has many entrancing photographs from Gertrude Bell's collection.

Middle Eastern Studies