To the Heart of Asia: The Life of Sven Hedin

by George Kish

166 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1985

About the author

Professor George Kish (November 24, 1914 – July 11, 1989, born György Kiss) was an internationally recognized authority known for work in geography and the history of cartography.

Dr. Kish was a Fulbright Research Professor in Italy in 1951–1952, and again in 1963.
He lectured at the United Nations University in Cambridge, the Stockholm School of Economics, and the Academy of Sciences of both Poland and Hungary, and at universities in Rome, Florence, Naples, Bari, London, Oxford, and Liège.

Kish was associated with he University of Michigan and was the curator of maps at the William L. Clements Library for several years.

Reviews

[Sicofonia · Rating 2 out of 5]

To the Heart of Asia was an effort by the late professor George Kish at producing a biography of Sven Hedin.
According to this very work, Hedin number of published records (books, pamphlets and published speeches) would be around 900 hundred. Totalling 30,000 pagess, 3,200 of those being the result of work that he did after his eightieth birthday.
Kish's own book, is merely over 150 pages, so that in itself is a cue for what the content of this biography is about.
Sadly, To the Heart of Asia comes across as a biography of certain breath but very little depth. It spans Hedin's whole lifetime, covering his childhood briefly and expanding more into his expeditions, discoveries, and life as a political agent.
But it is all very dry. For argument's sake, on page 63 Kish writes "in March 1901, Hedin found the ruins of an ancient city Lou Lan". That's the only reference to the fabled city in the entire book. Not a word on how the discovery came about. For those readers who are aware of how Hedin came to find Loulan, such depiction of the discovery is going to sound imprecise and also omitting a very fascinating story.
Loulan was not found by Hedin himself strictly speaking. It was one of his servants, Ordek, who lost a shovel and after being reprimanded by Hedin was sent back to look for it. After he returned to Hedin, he claimed he had come across the remains of some village. Then the rest was history. It was a discovery purely by chance.
It is missing this sort of details that really made this biography dull.
However, it is not all bad. Perhaps because Kish was himself an scholar, one aspect where he elaborates a lot is in commenting and summarizing the most important books Hedin published. Also covering his more scientific oriented work that was the result of this three biggest expeditions. This type of description of his scientific works is something I haven't come across in other biographies and for that Kish deserves some credit here.

All in all, this biography is a rather dry attempt to narrating Hedin's long and productive life. And it is a pity that for someone who lived such an exciting life, Kish couldn't make an exciting read out of this biography. Gladly for us, we can always resort to Hedin's own books to learn more about this. My Life as an Explorer is perhaps one of those books I would choose if I wanted to recollect Hedin's adventures.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an interesting biography of the explorer and geographer of Central Asia. In the late 19th and early 20th C, Hedin traveled all over Central Asia and the Mid-East and wrote numerous accounts of his travels/explorations. At one point, he was well-known internationally, and a best-selling author. This was a fascinating volume about the life of this late 19th and early 20th C explorer. Hedin also drew wonderful depictions of scenes throughout Asia - Tibet, Mongolia, etc., and the geographical observations and measurements taken by his expeditions added important data on natural features such as river systems in Central Asia. His writings were once extremely popular at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Unfortunately, he was pro-German, supported Germany under any government including the Nazi regime, and thought Germany would win WW2. It's extremely unsettling to consider that he did think this way given his contributions otherwise. How he could have possibly rationalized or justified Germany's aggression toward Poland and all the other countries Germany invaded even though none of these countries had done anything to Germany. How could he have possibly supported a dictatorship that carried out such inhuman policies - even aside from the horrors of the atrocities. He had been educated in Germany before Germany was wrecked by the Nazis, and had a high regard for Germany; unfortunately, he didn't modify his view of Germany with the advent of the Nazis.