E. Alexander Powell (1879–1957)

I came across this book (minus the dust jacket) in a Little Free Library. It's dedicated to Harvey Ladew and Dewitt Hutchings and by coincidence I had just the day before been reading about the Ladew Topiary Garden. Harvey Ladew created the garden and Hutchings was a businessman connected to the Mission Inn in Riverside, California. The common thread here is that these men were part of an America where you could create something entirely new that would last for nearly a century and be unique of its kind. These are the type of men (and women, of course) who would step out of their lives and take several months to tour an Arabia that is both familiar and surprising to the 21st century reader.

The book is a rather odd mixture of adventure story, travelogue and political commentary and Powell expresses his views in what we would now see as patronizing and often demeaning language, but it offers a rare chance to see what is now the Middle East during the final years of the Ottoman Empire when the Allies had taken possession. It is accompanied by many photographs taken by Powell and possibly Ladew (none are credited) that show people in native dress of the 1920s, now destroyed historic monuments and the landscape. Powell is prone to exaggeration and he makes himself the hero of every episode, often disparaging others along the way, but he does keep the story lively.… (more)