I Come From the Stone Age

by Henrich Harrer

Translated by Edward Fitzgerald

Rupart Hart-Davis, 1964, colour and black and white photographic plates, hardcover, dustjacket in Mylar sleeve

Very Good Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, minor rubbing to edges and corners, previous owners stamp on front endpaper, price-clipped dustjacket shows a little edge and shelf wear with a little rubbing, bumping and creasing to edges and corners, in Mylar protective sleeve (see photographs)

“The thought that there were ice-covered peaks on the great tropical island of New Guinea just below the Equator has fascinated me for the past thirty years,’ wrote Heinrich Harrer before he flew half way round the world, to organise an expedition into one of the last unexplored areas of our planet.  His first objective was to climb the Carstensz Pyramid, the highest mountain between the Himalayas and the Andes.  He not only succeeded in climbing this mountain, which nobody had done before, but with Philip Temple, an enterprising young New Zealander, went on to climb no less than thirty-two other peaks in the same range of mountains.
During this expedition his only porters were naked Danis, who, though outwardly savage, and still living in the Stone Age, were remarkably friendly and likable people.  Harrer became interested in their stone axes and determined to visit the place where the stone was quarried and to witness the laborious means by which it was ground into an axe.  This he succeeded in doing, but only on his second attempt.  The first time, his journey was cut short when he fell into a waterfall, broke several ribs and cracked a knee-cap.  The natives saved his life by carrying him back to civilisation slung beneath a pole like a dead pig.
Harrer’s day-to-day diary of this fascinating piece of exploration is illustrated with magnificent photographs, many of them in colour.”