Lady E. S. Drower's Scholarly Correspondence: An Intrepid English Autodidact in Iraq
Leiden: Brill, 2012. First edition. Hardcover. Octavo. (10), 264pp. Index and bibliography. Pictorial buckram with black spine lettered in white. Illustrated with 3 photographs. A fine but ex-library copy (with minimal markings; i.e. rubber stamps on title page & bottom of text block).
An edition of the scholarly letters of the English Lady E. S. Drower, famous for her novels, travel accounts, and studies in the Middle East, especially on the Mandaeans. Drower (1879‐1972) kept up a lively correspondence with scholars, and the letters here span the years 1938 to the mid 1960s. It presents a window on Near Eastern studies in the mid 20th century, from the viewpoint of an autodidact insisting on, and succeeding in, a place among the academics. Correspondence with many famous scholars and intellectuals are included, such as Cyrus H. Gordon, Rudolf Macuch, Sidney H. Smith, Godfrey R. Driver, Samuel H. Hooke, and Franz Rosenthal. The letters focus on four of Lady Drower's main books: The Book of the Zodiac (1949), Water into Wine (1956), A Mandaic Dictionary (with Rudolf Macuch, 1963), and Drowers hoped for, crowning achievement: the presumably lost, large manuscript, Mass and Masiqta. (Publisher)
Contents: Acknowledgments; Introduction From Lady E.S. Drower's Scholarly Correspondence; Chapter One Sfar Malwašia (= SM); Chapter Two Water into Wine (= WW); Chapter Three A Mandaic Dictionary; Chapter Four The Early 1960s: A Controversial Book, A Spat, and A Prize; Chapter Five Mass and Masiqta (= MM): "From the Tigris to the Tiber"; Epilogue; E.S. Drower Bibliography: Works Relevant to Mandaeism; Index of Names.
Volume 137 in the Brill's series, "Numen Book Series. Studies in the History of Religions." near fine. Item #52958
ISBN: 9789004205192
Price: $150.00