An extraordinary man, who advanced human knowledge on many fronts, Sir Aurel Stein (1862-1943) pursued dramatic adventure with scientific purpose. Jeannette Mirsky has drawn from Stein's voluminous outpouring of books and articles as well as from his letters and unpublished archival materials to produce a lively and definitive biography of this archaeological explorer, geographer, historical topographer, and linguist.

"[Mirsky] has digested the correspondence, and she quotes so skillfully that her book will save many people the trouble of reading Stein's own exhaustive and exhausting volumes. Definitive."-Larry McMurtry, Washington Post

"A first-rate and unique biography of one of the more significant explorers of Central Asia and the Indo-Iranian borderlands. . . . Mirsky has recreated not only the life of an intrepid explorer but the spirit of the times."-Choice

"Mirsky has performed a signal service in distilling the life, travels, and letters of Aurel Stein into a manageable, graceful, and meaningful synthesis."-Theodore A. Wertime, Technology and Culture