The Alluring Target: In Search of the Secrets of Central Asia - Softcover

Wimmel, Kenneth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1879434482 ISBN 13: 9781879434486

Publisher: Trackless Sands Pr Inc, 1997

Synopsis

Daring expeditions on camel and yak; biplanes buffeted by gales in the Himalayas; shootouts with bandits as paleontologists race across the Mongolian steppes; lost cities beneath desert dunes, priceless art treasures and manuscripts along the ancient Silk Road - here are real-life adventures in the great uncharted "alluring target" of Central Asia at the dawn of the modern age.
Rescued from obscurity and profiled in compelling detail are eleven explorers, scientists, mystics, and just plain adventures - including two indomitable women - who journeyed through this forbidding region between 1890 and 1935 and brought back its secrets, its treasures, its knowledge, and, as vividly presented in The Alluring Target, fascinating accounts of their travels.

About this title

About the Author

Kenneth Wimmel retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 1991 after working abroad for 25 years. He served as Cultural Attaché in American Embassies in Taiwan, the Philippines, and Egypt, and in other diplomatic positions in New Delhi, Dhaka, Calcutta and Kuala Lumpur. He speaks Chinese and Vietnamese. His most recent books are William Woodville Rockhill: scholar diplomat of the Tibetan Highlands and Theodore Roosevelt and the Great White Fleet: American Sea Power Comes of Age. His friendship with Ella Maillart convinced her to write an introduction to The Alluring Target.

Reviews

Author Wimmel, a veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, uses well-researched stories of Western expeditions to Central Asia to demonstrate how travel to that isolated area evolved from landmark voyages of discovery in 1890 to self-assigned feats of personal challenge in 1935. The first chapter recounts the history of Central Asian explorations from ancient times until 1890. In each of 11 chapters, Wimmel profiles an individual or expedition that journeyed through this forbidding region of endless wastes of desert and high mountain ranges. The subjects include pioneering explorer Sven Hedin, who retraced the path of the ancient Silk Road to China and found buried cities; Arnold Henry Savage Landor, characterized as a latter-day Munchausen for the suspected exaggerations in his exciting travel tales; and Sir Francis Younghusband, whose goal was to reach the forbidden land of Tibet. Of all the eccentric individualists profiled here, the best known (and only American) is Roy Chapman Andrews, who began his career sweeping floors at the American Museum of Natural History, and 37 years later became director of the museum. Andrews's Asian travels achieved worldwide renown with his discovery first of a cache of dinosaur eggs in Mongolia, and then the fossilized remains of "Peking man," a primitive ancestor of modern humans. All of these adventurers were also prolific authors, and Wimmel uses extensive quotations from their writings in his vividly written accounts, sure to appeal to armchair travelers. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In these days of jet travel, casual tourism, and international development organizations, it is hard to imagine the far-off mystery that Asia was to Americans and Europeans of earlier generations. Wimmel, a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer, offers vivid profiles of 11 travelers to Central Asia between 1890 and 1935. He discusses, among others, pioneering Swedish explorer Sven Hedin, English braggart celebrity adventurer Arnold Henry Savage Landor, French mystic Alexandra David Neel, and dashing American scientist-explorer Roy Chapman Andrews (who is said to be the model for Indiana Jones). They embarked on their journeys for different reasons?scientific, spiritual, or the desire for some kind of notoriety. Wimmel does an excellent job of describing and summarizing their journeys. He smoothly incorporates passages from the travelers' own writings and also reminds us of the now forgotten geopolitical importance of Central Asia to Britain and Russia. Included are brief, annotated bibliographies on each traveler. Recommended for public libraries.?Mary C. Kalfatovic, Telesec Lib. Svce., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Wimmel's foreign service career equipped him with an intimate knowledge of central Asia and a keen awareness of its history. These attributes lend credibility to condensed accounts of 11 intrepid travelers who traversed the area long before the benefits of modern transportation. After an informative introduction, Wimmel recounts Sven Hedlin's explorations, which began in 1885 and resulted in the discovery of ancient cities buried in central Asian deserts. Other overlooked or forgotten adventurers responsible for scientific contributions, or compelling literary accounts of their treks and travails, include Francis Younghusband and Aurel Stein. One splendid account reports on an extended trip by a gutsy pair of journalists. It is all the more captivating because Ella Maillart, now 91 and living in Switzerland, still shares details of her inspiring travels today. Alice Joyce

Edition details

• Publisher: Trackless Sands Pr Inc
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1879434482
• ISBN 13: 9781879434486
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256