The Lost World of the Kalahari

by Laurens van der Post

Book Overview

An account of the author's grueling, but ultimately successful, journey in 1957, through Africa's remote, primitive Kalahari Desert, in search of the legendary Bushmen, the hunters who pray to the great hunters in the sky.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156537060
• ISBN13: 9780156537063
• Release Date: November 1977
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Would Recommend

Whether every word is true or not, I do not know. But this is a very detailed, exciting account of this adventure. It is "to the point", educational & exciting. It makes a fella want to hop on a plane and explore unknown places.

A book filled with love and dignity

An older friend of mine met Laurens Van der Post in Australia and described him as "a wonderful man." A large part of the joy of reading "Kalahari," his best-known book, comes from the experience of his transparent honesty and honest heart. His writing style is as wonderful as the man was--unpretentious, without "side," and ever positive and life-affirming. Van der Post did a fine service in revealing how trivial and unconnected our modern traits of cynicism and meaninglessness appear before the Bushmen's selfless creed. This is one of the great books of pilgrimage.

gripping, informative and inspiring

I stayed up until three AM reading this book. It's both gripping, informative and inspiring. Van Der Post starts out telling us about the wild Bushman, untamed or corrupted by civilization, almost extinct in his time, certainly gone by now. Then he regales us with a wonderful story about his expedition into the deepest dessert areas of the Kalahari to find the last living indigenous Bushmen. There is magic in this book, in the panoramic, images he paints of nature scenes and spiritual moments of insight and mystic wonder. Part of the goal of the expedition was to create a documentary for BBC. I'd love to find a copy of that to view. The mixture of the gritty reality of mounting and carrying out a real safari expedition, blended with the wonder and surprise the author shares makes this a very special book. We have so much to learn from history's lost indigenous cultures. Books like these help remind us of the different, incredible ways one can be human. If you like this, you will most certainly also like Original Wisdom, by Robert Wolff.

As beautiful as the stars in the desert night

van der Post has put his soul into the making of every sentence of this beautiful book. His words are polished to the un-self-conscious ornateness of patterns of rock burnished by wind.Even if Spode were half as odious as the author portrays him, he would be a real pain to deal with. What van der Post does not seem to realize, though, is the necessity of this counterpoise; if he had not existed, it would have been necessary to invent him. Spode's sourness sweetens van der Post's aim.The book overpowers as a sunrise does. You may shut your eyes or turn away, but there are rich beauties to savor. My only regret is the lack of photographs.

This book stirred my imagination...

I enjoyed this book immensely. It really stirred and awakened my imagination. At the time, I was planning a trip to Southern Africa, and after reading his book, the Kalahari desert became a must see for me. As well as the Victoria Falls Hotel in Zimbabwe which Laurens Van Der Post mentions in his book, as the place where he joined the other explorers before and after his trips. Great historical book. Excellent vivid and vibrant descriptions of the desert and the bushman. I also recommend "The Cry of the Kalahari" by Mark and Delia Owens.

Vividly descriptive of Kalahari & Bushmen yet meditative

This was a wonderful book. Although, at times the author brought down the pensive, spiritual level with his complaints regarding the practical complications of his expedition, overall, this book is extremely moving. The only way you could get a better idea of life in the Kalahari is by going there yourself; he describes, in beautiful, vivid language, the plant and animal life of the desert, the variety of cultures, and the consequences of the European settlement. The book unravels like a mystery, with the mysterious Bushman always lingering just out of reach, a figure between reality and legend.