MS 433 07 07

MS 433 07 07

Paper relating to ‘The Danakil Diary’ by Wilfred P. Thesiger

Sub-series

1995-1996

2 boxes and 3 files

This box contains the typescripts and page proofs for Thesiger’s ‘The Danakil Diaries’.

This book was primarily based on the diaries he kept in 1930, in which recounted his experience attending the coronation of Haile Selassie as Emperor of Ethiopia, and in 1933-1934 when he was living and hunting in the Danakil country.

The original diaries are listed under MS 433 06 01 and act as the manuscripts for this published work.

The work was published in 1996 by HarperCollins, over 60 years after the events and these typescripts show the development from the initial drafts to the finished proof and the editorial decisions. The content of the diaries were heavily edited before being included in this work, and he added passages from his autobiography, ‘The Life of My Choice’ and his letters to his mother, which also recounted his time in Danakil.

Due to Thesiger’s failing sight, most of the editorial corrections to the typescripts were made by Alexander Maitland (his close friend and official biographer); Lucinda McNeile (his editor at HarperCollins) and Anne O’Brien.