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The Coast of Incense: Autobiography 1933-39
THE COAST OF INCENSE is the third book in Freya Stark's autobiography. It covers the middle years (1933-1939). The author emerges as an intelligent and gifted woman, a sensitive observer and a courageous traveler. Her vivid, intimate descriptions of Egypt, the Persian Gulf, Greece, Italy and the Middle East allows us to travel vicariously with every turn of the page. A sunset in Aden, the treasures of Tutankhamen, dinner with the Sheikh of Kuwait, a visit to the Queen of Iraq, a journey on the Orient Express--all are brought to life. The real focus of this book, however, is the author's introduction to South Arabia, "whose distant, severe and unimaginable beauty lives in my heart."
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1953
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About the author
Freya Stark
129 books177 followersFreya Stark was born in Paris, where her parents were studying art. Her mother, Flora, was an Italian of Polish/German descent; her father, Robert, an English painter from Devon.
In her lifetime she was famous for her experiences in the Middle East, her writing and her cartography. Freya Stark was not only one of the first Western women to travel through the Arabian deserts (Hadhramaut), she often travelled solo into areas where few Europeans, let alone women, had ever been.
She spent much of her childhood in North Italy, helped by the fact that Pen Browning, a friend of her father, had bought three houses in Asolo. She also had a grandmother in Genoa. For her 9th birthday she received a copy of the One Thousand and One Nights, and became fascinated with the Orient. She was often ill while young, and confined to the house, so found an outlet in reading. She delighted in reading French, in particular Dumas, and taught herself Latin. When she was 13 she had an accident in a factory in Italy, when her hair got caught in a machine, and she had to spend four months getting skin grafts in hospital, which left her face slightly disfigured.
She later learned Arabic and Persian, studied history in London and during World War I worked as a nurse in Italy, where her mother had remained and taken a share in a business. Her sister, Vera, married the co-owner.
In November 1927 she visited Asolo for the first time in years, and later that month boarded a ship for Beirut, where her travels in the East began. She based herself first at the home of James Elroy Flecker in Lebanon and then in Baghdad, where she met the British high commissioner.
By 1931 she had completed three dangerous treks into the wilderness of western Iran, in parts of which no Westerner had ever been before, and had located the long-fabled Valleys of the Assassins (hashish-eaters). During the 1930s she penetrated the hinterland of southern Arabia, where only a handful of Western explorers had previously ventured and then never as far or as widely as she went.
During World War II, she joined the British Ministry of Information and contributed to the creation of a propaganda network aimed at persuading Arabs to support the Allies or at least remain neutral. She wrote more than two dozen books based on her travels, almost all of which were published by John Murray in London, with whom she had a successful and long-standing working relationship.
In her lifetime she was famous for her experiences in the Middle East, her writing and her cartography. Freya Stark was not only one of the first Western women to travel through the Arabian deserts (Hadhramaut), she often travelled solo into areas where few Europeans, let alone women, had ever been.
She spent much of her childhood in North Italy, helped by the fact that Pen Browning, a friend of her father, had bought three houses in Asolo. She also had a grandmother in Genoa. For her 9th birthday she received a copy of the One Thousand and One Nights, and became fascinated with the Orient. She was often ill while young, and confined to the house, so found an outlet in reading. She delighted in reading French, in particular Dumas, and taught herself Latin. When she was 13 she had an accident in a factory in Italy, when her hair got caught in a machine, and she had to spend four months getting skin grafts in hospital, which left her face slightly disfigured.
She later learned Arabic and Persian, studied history in London and during World War I worked as a nurse in Italy, where her mother had remained and taken a share in a business. Her sister, Vera, married the co-owner.
In November 1927 she visited Asolo for the first time in years, and later that month boarded a ship for Beirut, where her travels in the East began. She based herself first at the home of James Elroy Flecker in Lebanon and then in Baghdad, where she met the British high commissioner.
By 1931 she had completed three dangerous treks into the wilderness of western Iran, in parts of which no Westerner had ever been before, and had located the long-fabled Valleys of the Assassins (hashish-eaters). During the 1930s she penetrated the hinterland of southern Arabia, where only a handful of Western explorers had previously ventured and then never as far or as widely as she went.
During World War II, she joined the British Ministry of Information and contributed to the creation of a propaganda network aimed at persuading Arabs to support the Allies or at least remain neutral. She wrote more than two dozen books based on her travels, almost all of which were published by John Murray in London, with whom she had a successful and long-standing working relationship.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 1, 2024
I’ve not yet read Freya Stark’s first volume of autobiography. It covers the child- and early-adulthood that lay the ground for the legend, and it’s on my list. Her second volume, Beyond Euphrates, is where the legend begins. Coast of Incense is her third, covering 1933-1939, the period of two of her earliest books of exploration and travel: The Southern Gates of Arabia and A Winter in Arabia.
The format continues and works well enough: each section starts with her later (decades later) reflections on those years, expanded by her letters sent at the time.
For best continuity, first try finding the books. Then if you can, the corresponding instalment of autobiography. Not so easy when so much is out of print. But if you once become wrapped in the adventures and writing of this astonishing lady, you’ll track them down somewhere.
Complaints? Only one. As published over the years by John Murray, the illustrated maps of her travels are a real disappointment. In the 1930s she was in country scarcely any European, let alone European woman, had seen. And among her many accomplishments Freya Stark was also a pioneering mapmaker. You long to follow the day-to-day courses of her progress as she describes them, but from her published books that’s nigh impossible. Never mind. Get hold of whatever you can and then travel with her in imagination.
The format continues and works well enough: each section starts with her later (decades later) reflections on those years, expanded by her letters sent at the time.
For best continuity, first try finding the books. Then if you can, the corresponding instalment of autobiography. Not so easy when so much is out of print. But if you once become wrapped in the adventures and writing of this astonishing lady, you’ll track them down somewhere.
Complaints? Only one. As published over the years by John Murray, the illustrated maps of her travels are a real disappointment. In the 1930s she was in country scarcely any European, let alone European woman, had seen. And among her many accomplishments Freya Stark was also a pioneering mapmaker. You long to follow the day-to-day courses of her progress as she describes them, but from her published books that’s nigh impossible. Never mind. Get hold of whatever you can and then travel with her in imagination.
July 15, 2023
freya stark begins with the description (in sohrab and rustrum) of the oxus.
it is the period round late december 1934 to february 1935 - she is away to explore the hadhramaut (the south of saudi arabia);
‘it is, to the geographer, the picture of his life ... to us, who delight in maps, the idea of life inclines to be spatial - we see it moving from point to point, like a road if we are disposed to attribute its shaping to men, like a river if we have more feeling for the unexpectedness of nature. because I have lived free of institutions or the ‘planned economy’, I incline to the river...’
this from the coast of incense: autobiography 1933-39.
in her books about it we find a similar structure, the same journey is recounted in the southern gates of arabia: a journey in the hadhramaut, there she begins with writings of a 1st century greek captain, a practical book, of ports and goods - the periplus of the the erithraean sea - a book she reads while onboard the ship carrying her there.
in her autobiography we find rivers and routes but also houses and hosts. she takes photographs (not here) but there are sketches.
27th january she shares a dish with the locals before hearing one of the children has come down with measles - she comes down with measles (and then with lung complaints) to go with the dysentry. she abandons a visit to shabwa - a german explorer has got there ahead of her and already published a book about it.
meanwhile, over the water, sylvia pankhurst is in ethiopia - wheras freya stark harbours illusions about the benefits of british rule sylvia has no such illusions. soon the second world war will come and the region will be up for redivision by the british, the french and the germans to produce the states that we know today. freya will work in a british propoganda unit.
it is the period round late december 1934 to february 1935 - she is away to explore the hadhramaut (the south of saudi arabia);
‘it is, to the geographer, the picture of his life ... to us, who delight in maps, the idea of life inclines to be spatial - we see it moving from point to point, like a road if we are disposed to attribute its shaping to men, like a river if we have more feeling for the unexpectedness of nature. because I have lived free of institutions or the ‘planned economy’, I incline to the river...’
this from the coast of incense: autobiography 1933-39.
in her books about it we find a similar structure, the same journey is recounted in the southern gates of arabia: a journey in the hadhramaut, there she begins with writings of a 1st century greek captain, a practical book, of ports and goods - the periplus of the the erithraean sea - a book she reads while onboard the ship carrying her there.
in her autobiography we find rivers and routes but also houses and hosts. she takes photographs (not here) but there are sketches.
27th january she shares a dish with the locals before hearing one of the children has come down with measles - she comes down with measles (and then with lung complaints) to go with the dysentry. she abandons a visit to shabwa - a german explorer has got there ahead of her and already published a book about it.
meanwhile, over the water, sylvia pankhurst is in ethiopia - wheras freya stark harbours illusions about the benefits of british rule sylvia has no such illusions. soon the second world war will come and the region will be up for redivision by the british, the french and the germans to produce the states that we know today. freya will work in a british propoganda unit.
July 30, 2024
Funny, educational, scathing, political, emotional up to a point - this is essentially a diary with framing text taking you through pre-War Arab coastal life, with dollops of France, Italy, Germany, and England thrown in. The most vivid image that sticks in my mind is of the mud brick ‘skyscrapers’ appearing from the desert as Stark’s company work their way in land. An excellent book to gain some feeling for the single female traveller of the pre-War era.
March 30, 2025
I love her writing style. Feels like you're in her head. What an adventurer she is!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews