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57 DICKSON, H. R. P. Kuwait and Her Neighbours. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1956 A BRITISH POLITICAL AGENT’S “SPRAWLING LIFEWORK” First edition; uncommon, particularly so with the fragile jacket in such superb condition. This is a remarkable topographical, anthropological, and historical survey of the region written by Lieutenant- Colonel Dickson (1881–1959), a British political agent based in the region for more than 25 years. Edited for publication by Clifford Witting, it includes numerous highly revealing personal reminiscences, as well as one of the few published firsthand accounts of the Uqair Convention of 1922. Dickson, the son of John Dickson, British consul- general in Jerusalem, was born in Beirut. After education at Oxford his army career began with the 1st Connaught Rangers, transferring to the 33rd QVO Light Cavalry in 1914, his knowledge of Arabic assuring his despatch to Mesopotamia, where “he took part in all the actions leading up to the capture of Basra, Kurna and Nasiriyah, including the battle of Shu’aiba, and was mentioned in dispatches” (p. 9). After the war he served as political agent in Bahrain and political resident in the Gulf. “In 1929, when the ‘Ikhwan rebellion against King Ibn Sa’ud was at its height, he went to Kuwait as Political Agent . . . and played a prominent part in the negotiations that
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led to the capitulation of the rebels” (ibid.). After retirement from the army he was employed by the Kuwait Oil Company. Kuwait and Her Neighbours has been described by one historian of the country as Dickson’s “sprawling lifework”, and that “more than many other British administrators in his position, he enjoyed being with the Bedouin in their tents, drinking endless rounds of coffee, swapping yarns, winning their respect, becoming their friend. When Dickson spoke of going to see his ‘friends,’ he was invariably referring to the Bedouin tribesmen, and the appellation was sincere” (Finnie, p. 58). Octavo. Original orange cloth, title gilt on green faux label to spine, linen inner hinges, top edge orange. With pictorial dust jacket. Coloured frontispiece, 27 pages of black and white plates, 15 illustrations in text, 2 maps and 12 genealogical tables (one folding), in text, end-pocket with 4 folding maps, of which one coloured, and 3 folding genealogical tables; title page with crossed red banners of the Emir. Binding square and firm, cloth bright and contents clean; a near-fine copy in the price-clipped jacket, tiny nicks
at extremities, top edge of rear panel creased, overall an excellent example. ¶ David H. Finnie, Shifting Lines in the Sand: Kuwait’s Elusive Frontier with Iraq, 1992. £1,750 [153191] 58 DODOENS, Rembert. A Niewe Herball, or history of plantes: wherin is contayned the whole discourse and perfect description of all sortes of herbes and plantes . . . nowe first translated out of French into English, by Henry Lyte Esquyer. London [i.e. Antwerp]: [printed by Henry Loë, sold] by my [sic] Gerard Dewes, 1578 modern botany brought to ELIZABETHAN england First edition in English of the Cruydeboeck , this edition becoming the standard English herbal until Gerard’s two decades later.
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SPRING 2022
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