Freya Stark, Dust in the Lion's Paw: Autobiography 1939-1946, first edition

Anglo-Italian author and adventuress Freya Stark was the O.G. badass: fluent in Arabic and Turkish, she blazed her way across the Middle East and Afghanistan at a time when few Westerners, much less women, dared to tread there. Praised as a “poet of travel,” her evocative writing earned her fans like Vita Sackville-West and her memoirs make for exhilarating reading.

This first edition of the fourth volume of her memoirs recalls the Middle East during and after World War II, when Stark's knowledge of the region made her ideally suited to influence public opinion for the Allied cause and indispensable to the Ministry of Information and the Foreign Office. It includes her original photographs and a graphic, vivid cover that will draw admirers to your cocktail table like a magnet.

This book is in good vintage condition. Its dust jacket, which is secured in plastic, has a few very minor creases. The pages are clean and the volume is well intact. This title is part of a 4-book set, each sold separately.