London: Luzac, 1939.
163 pp. 5.5 x 8.25 Hardback in Very Good condition. Original blue boards and gilt lettering to spine. Minor foxing to edges. With folding map. First edition. Item #BOOKS010337I
Josiah Harlan, Prince of Ghor (1799-1871) was an American adventurer, best known for travelling to Afghanistan and Punjab with the intention of making himself a king and was partly the inspiration for the Rudyard Kipling short story, The Man Who Would Be King.
Born into a Pennsylvania Quaker family Harlan left home at 23 and joined the British East India Company as a surgeon, although he had no training. He then become the first American to travel to Afghanistan. After raising various armies in and winning himself a kingdom he was stripped of his title when the British occupied Kabul and named an Afghani king. After traveling in Imperial Russia he would return to the United States and commanded a regiment of Union soldiers in the Civil War. After the war he made his way to San Francisco where he practiced medicine until his death.