Lost Trails, Lost Cities

by Percy Harrison Fawcett, Brian Fawcett

Letters, manuscripts, and other records written by Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett were compiled by his son, Brian, in Lost Trails, Lost Cities (Funk & Wagnalls, 1953; also titled Exploration Fawcett). In this chronicle, the Colonel detailed his adventures in Mato Grosso, South America, as he searched for the ruins of an ancient lost city ("I call it 'Z' for the sake of convenience," he wrote) between 1906 and 1925. Though his journal ended with his strange disappearance sometime after 29 May 1925, his story continued long after.

Genres: Adventure, Travel

332 pages, Hardback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Lt. Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, DSO

Reviews

[William Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as adventure stories go, this is one of the most original and inspiring books I've read. Colonel P.H. Fawcett tells of his first hand adventures in S. America and opens the imagination to dark and bizarre creatures he encountered. A giant spider that was found to be behind mysterious deaths at an inn in the mountains. Birds whose saliva eats rock. Fish with teeth and barbs, less than a centimeter long that lodge themselves into human orafices and try to gnaw their way out. A must read for the "old school" adventure type.

[John Tipton · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book & other readings about Friedrich Humboldt's adventures led me to become a Mormon. I once found a stone stack at the top of Watchmen Towers at Zion Nat. Park like those found in the Himelayas as trail markers. I have seen El Camino Real in the Sierra's . And have nearly been invited to dinner by three seven foot tall monkeymen in the Amazon. I was a personal friend of Larry Byrd's roommate our seven foot tall center at Indiana State.

[Asabi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to start be saying "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence."

I've seen some reviews about this book, making assumptions that this man's writing was somehow false or embellished. To that I say "Why?" And "Were you there with him?" Our own planet is still a mystery to us, yet readers will consume this book and find reason to believe it's false.

Anyway. This is an EXCELLENT work of NON-fiction that the Fawcett family didn't have to share with the world. Yet in allowing us access to Percy's personal journal we learn a great deal about human history and existence. Don't take this book as a philosophy. Read it as it is, simply the truth of someone's excursions through South America. You will find that it widens your understanding of not only our planet, and it's natural state, but of humanity.

[Dr. Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book 45 years ago, then the movie "City of Z" came out this year (2018). I watched the movie and was "meh." The story of Col. Percy Fawcett and his search for ancient cities was an incredible journey and FAR SURPASSES THE MOVIE! As our world gets smaller and more unstable under Trump, this book will become a relic of anthropology and a masterpiece of jungle life prior to the mechanization of a disappearing jungle. The photos were taken not long after photography went public in the late 19th century.

[Ms Anne Brodie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first reading of this book, at the age of 15, inspired me. I have re-read it many times, and recently purchased it for my Kindle. A true adventure story of an intrepid explorer, Col. P. H. Fawcett, who spent most of his adult life exploring in Matto Grosso, South America. He eventually disappeared in search of a 'lost city', never to be found despite several attempts so to do.

Don't be put of by the lacklustre film of his explorations, 'The Lost City of Z', as the book is very much more engaging and interesting than the film.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic tail if adventure in the early 1900’s with attitudes about other people that unfortunately reflect the times. Nevertheless it is an incredible story of endurance with a fantastic cast of snakes, insects, animals and human beings.

[Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my earliest memories of the library was stumbling across this book and finding myself enthralled with its True Tales of adventure in the Amazonian wilds. I don't know how many times I re-read it over the years, but it was absolutely one of those doors to a wider, more fantastic world that I believe it's the library's essential function to provide. Eighty-foot anacondas, ghosts that paw unwary travelers at night with bony hands and blow fetid breath upon them, strange, ancient ruins dissolving into the forest. Hail to your memory, Colonel Fawcett!

[William Taylor]

Fascinating book. Fawcett was a compeling, mysterious man. His disappearance launched many search expeditions and generated a cottage industry of speculation. One of the most interesting parts of this book is the quote early on from ancient archives in Portugal about the discovery of a lost city in the jungle with advanced architecture.

[P.F. Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

In May 1925, British explorer Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett disappeared in the wilds of Brazil's Mato Grosso looking for the Lost City of Z. This book was actually "edited" and published in 1953 by Colonel Fawcett's son Brian, who wrote using his father's notes.

[Brian Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the early books that fired my imagination.