In 1973
Peter Matthiessen joined the
zoologist George Schaller on a 250 mile trek through the
Himalayas to the
Dolpo region, who was planning to study the
Blue Sheep. For Matthiessen, the lure was the chance to see the very elusive, very rare
snow leopard--at the time, only two westerners have ever seen the creature in the wild, and Schaller was one of them.
Matthiessen's journey is a
pilgrimage: as a student of
Zen this region contains special
resonance for him, and the search for the
animal, and the chance encounters with others edges towards the
allegorical. But it's a rare book: so carefully
balanced and
delicate, but bursting with energy and wonder.
This is an astonishing piece of
travel writing, and of
nature writing.
First published in 1978. Winner of the US National Book Award