Descripción
A collection of material from author Brian Fawcett, the son of explorer Percy Fawcett, who was lost in South America searching for the Lost City of Z. Included is an Inscribed first edition of *Exploration Fawcett*, Fawcett s recounting of his father Percy s career; an Inscribed first edition of *Ruins in the Sky*, Fawcett s autobiographical story of his life and quest to find his father s lost city; eight letters and one card from Brian to close friends that total more than 10,000 words and which document his return to South America, the period of celebrity following the release of his books, and his thwarted effort to follow his father s path in discovery; as well as 10 photographs including those of Brian and his wife Ruth and images of his aerial expedition, including several that appear in his *Ruins in the Sky*. Overall very good or better fine with moderate wear to the books, creasing to the letters from being mailed, and rubbing to a couple of the photos. After a career as a railway engineer traveling across much of South America, Brian Fawcett turned his attention to his father s Percy's papers which had been given to him years earlier by his mother, and which included not only log books and letters from his father, but also Percy's unfinished manuscript. While the work brought Brian closer to his father and brother (who was also lost), it stirred renewed interest in their disappearances and the hope of finding new information as to their fates. The resulting book, *Exploration Fawcett*, was a best-seller and shot Brian to international fame. His follow up, *Ruins in the Sky*, provided readers with his story as the son of a famous explorer and his subsequent effort to retrace his Percey's final journey. The material here comes from Elizabeth and C.P. Ten Houten, friends of Brian and his wife Ruth, who lived for many years in Peru, where Elizabeth was part of the joint American-Peruvian Agricultural Commission and the National Library of Peru in Ecuador. The earliest of Brian s letters, dated September 1951, is written from his home in England and describes his recent trip to Brazil, where he was the guest of Assis Chateaubriand, the millionaire Brazilian journalist, called by some the most powerful man in South America. Chateaubriand was an admirer of Fawcett s father and announces he has discovered Percy's "remains," which are presented to Brian in a dubious press event: "They were delivered to me in what he [Chateaubriand] called a little ceremony actually a BBC-sponsored ceremony … There was a blaze of publicity, and it was movied for the newsreels and broadcast… Had I not seen the remains beforehand and known the they were not my father s I don t think participation in all this could have been carried off, but as it was I could only wonder, whose bones are they what poor devil was it who the Calapales Indians clubbed to death? " Brian writes again in March 1952 to say he and Ruth have arrived in Rio De Janeiro and, while not thinking much of the city itself, they find the Brazilian people wonderfully friendly and hospitable. He provides a brief recap of a series of his short expeditions from the previous few months, largely retracing his father s journeys and then an overview on several groups of indigenous tribes, admitting how fortunate he has been due to his connection to Chateaubriand: "My father had the greatest difficulties in getting his work financed and arranged. … I, on the contrary, seem to have inexhaustible funds to drawn on." He also gives a brief account of meeting the Villas-Bôas (Orlando, Cláudio, and Leonard) at their camp and being led to the source of the recovered "remains" of his father which he calls a complete farce. [The Villas-Bôas would later become renowned activists helping the indigenous peoples of South American establish the protected 6.5-million-acre Xingu Indigenous Park.] A few months later things have soured, with the Fawcett s suddenly departing Brazil due to the ".
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