Laurence Oliphant a Real/Fictional Life

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The Trans-Caucasian Campaign of The Turkish Army Under Omer Pasha
by Laurence Oliphant
1856

Oliphant's life was interesting enough while he was alive.   He traveled extensively, a friendly British eye in a suspiciously convenient number of political hot-spots, he was an early Zionist, and in later life became entangled with mysticism.

The Trans-Caucasian Campaign was fought as part of conflicts between Russia and the Ottoman empire, Oliphant's friendship with Omer Pasha allowed him to follow the General through the war.

Oliphant's biographer, A. Taylor, identifies him as a British Secret Agent and it is in this role he finds his way, along with Ada Lovelace and Kurt Godel,  into the award winning The Difference Engine,  a steampunk alternative history coauthored by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.  

- Helen Clarke

The Military Museum, Yugoslavia

As in the case of our Military Museums Library, many of the books in the Chicksands Collection were also gifts. Fourteen Centuries of Struggle for Freedom was published by The Military Museum (Vojni muzej Beograd) in Belgrade (in what was then Yugoslavia) in 1968.

In 1973, Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, visited the Museum in his role as Defence Minister of Great Britain. He went on to serve as British Foreign Secretary (1979-1982) and as the sixth Secretary of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) from 1984 to 1988.

A presentation copy of the book was formally inscribed to Carrington, using Olde English Texte calligraphy (thanks to Donna Zambory for that information) to commemorate his visit on November 28th 1973.

In turn, Carrington presented it to the Defence Library in January 1975.






As the history of a military past that has changed radically in the past quarter century this book is a fascinating remnant of the former Yugoslavian armed forces. It is also a lesson in documenting the formation and growth of a military museum.

The Museum, founded in 1878, holds weapons from the Greek and Roman periods, through the Middle Ages, to tanks liberated from both the Allied & Axis forces during World War II.

The Museum, which is now located in Serbia, continues to document military history. Recently, an exhibit featured remnants of a US stealth aircraft downed by the Serbians during the recent war.

Thanks to Allison Wagner for pointing out this title.