Peking man is missing - Hardcover

TASCHDJIAN, Claire

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0450040259 ISBN 13: 9780450040252

Publisher: New English Library, 1978

Synopsis

In the 1920s, on a hill near Peking (now Beijing), a team of scientists discovered a huge cache of human bones, some more than half a million years old. Collectively dubbed ?Peking Man,? they were one of the most important finds in the history of paleontology. And in 1941, in the chaos of World War II they disappeared. No one knows what happened, but there are plenty of theories, many with political implications. Claire Taschdjian?s speculation as to what might have become of the priceless fossils could represent just another theory, but for one intriguing fact: Claire Taschdjian was one of the last people in the world known to have seen Peking Man. (With newly-commissioned material on the true story of the Peking Man.)

About this title

About the Author

Claire Taschdjian ( 1914 - 1998) was educated in Berlin and later moved to China. In the wake of the Japanese invasion, she married Edgar Taschdjian, an Armenian citizen, in 1937. While in Beijing, Ms. Taschdjian worked as a secretary to the director of the Peking Union Medical College, an American facility funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. It was in her capacity as secretary that she was made responsible for packing up the fossil collection known as Peking Man.

After leaving China, Ms. Taschdjian and her husband went to Brooklyn, where they both took positions on the faculty of St. Joseph's College, as professors, respectively, of biology and physics. Claire Taschdjian's writings include two mystery novels (The Peking Man is Missing is one) and numerous scientific papers.

Review

- "The fascinating, quick sketches of Western life under Japanese mainland occupation provide exactly the right frame for an elegant puzzle where nothing's belabored and everything fits."

- "Taking a genuine real-life mystery and creating around it a believable, provocative and totally unpredictable fictional explanation is a neat feat. It has been done before, but not more expertly than here, or more originally...It adds up to a superior mystery story, one that deserves serious consideration for an Edgar."

Edition details

• Publisher: New English Library
• Publication date: 1978
• ISBN 10: 0450040259
• ISBN 13: 9780450040252
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 258