Backsheesh! Or Life and Adventures in the Orient.
KNOX, Thomas W.
Backsheesh! Or Life and Adventures in the Orient.
First Edition of Thomas W. Knox's Backsheesh! Or Life and Adventures in the Orient
Hartford, Conn.: A.D. Worthington & Co., Publishers, 1875.
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Item Number: 149171
First edition of this travel narrative through the Middle East and Asia-minor. Octavo, bound in three-quarter calf with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in five compartments within raised bands, pictorial floral and gilt boards, tissue-guarded steel-plate frontispiece of the author, with nearly 250 illustrations including 48 full page engravings. In very good condition.
Thomas W. Knox (1835–1896) was an American journalist, author, and world traveler whose works combined reportage with popular adventure writing. After serving as a war correspondent during the U.S. Civil War, he became widely known for his travel narratives, which transported American readers to distant regions at a time when international tourism was still limited. Backsheesh! Or Life and Adventures in the Orient (1875) blends reportage, anecdote, and humor, as Knox recounts his journeys through Egypt, the Levant, and beyond, offering vivid descriptions of landscapes, customs, and encounters with local populations. The title’s emphasis on backsheesh—a term for gratuity or bribe—underscores the traveler’s perception of cultural difference while also revealing the ethnocentric lens through which such practices were interpreted for Western readers.
