title: Sahara: The Great Desert
author: Dorothy Ford Mayhew
description: Here for the first time available to the English-speaking public in paperback form is the geographical classic "Le Sahara."  The author Emile Gautier, an eminent authority on the geography and history of the Sahara and the nearby steppes in the mid-20th century, is recognized on both sides of the Atlantic for his literary style as well as his personality.  A longstanding friend of the United
  States, he lectured in American classrooms and trod American deserts.  In this book, Gautier journeys into one of the most fascinating regions of the world.  The reader becomes acquainted with the real Sahara  the one noted for its exceptional aridity and its rare destructive rains.  It is a land of temperature contrasts, with unbearable heat during the day and below freezing cold at night.  The traveler is impressed with a magnificent sense of absolute emptiness.  Both layman and scientist will find profit as well as pleasure in following Gautier's reconstruction of the Sahara of past geologic ages, and his discussion of the progressive desiccation of the Great Desert. [~~Douglas Johnson]
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  STORIES OF THE SAHARA
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Foreword
  
  
  By Sharlene Teo
  
  
  The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world and among the most sparsely
  populated, spanning 103,000 square miles of dunes and flatlands. How did a
  fiercely cosmopolitan Taiwanese woman end up living in one of the harshest
  territories on earth? What compelled her to move there? And once she got
  there, what happened?
  
  
  Stories of the Sahara, the book that answers these questions, has captivated
  millions of readers to date. First published in Chinese in 1976 to rapturous
  success, Sanmao’s memoir and travelogue launched its author as a literary
  celebrity across Asia. Initially serialised in the Taiwanese United Daily
  News, the candid intimacy and liveliness of Sanmao’s writing cemented her
  status as an enduring cultural icon and figure of quixotic fascination. Coming
  to public attention during the prohibitive atmosphere of 1970s martial-law era
  Taiwan, Sanmao’s free-spirited iti