Nubia ― Sketches, Notes And Photographs

From 1964 onward much of the ancient land of Nubia sank forever in the waters of Lake Nasser, behind the new Aswan High Dam. Margo Veillon had been fascinated by the vibrancy, color, and movement of the life of ordinary people in Nubia since the 1930s. In the company of friends and fellow artists she made numerous extended visits to capture in her artwork a lifestyle that has now vanished. This book is a record of her journeys. Presenting the Nile as this beautiful land's thoroughfare, her drawings and photographs reflect the impact of this world upon her. Veillon's diaries, notes, and pictures vividly illuminate one of the world's most visually oriented cultures in a style that is as expressive as its subject, thus offering not only an image captured ata particular moment in time, never to be seen again, but the sensitivity and skill of brain, eye, and hand that made that capture possible. Margo Veillon was born in Cairo in 1907, the daughter of a Swiss businessman and his Austrian wife. She spent muchof her artistic career capturing the verve and movement of daily life in Egypt, and since 1936 the world of Upper Egypt and Nubia. She died in 2003.

JOHN RODENBECK, director of The American University in Cairo Press from 1974 to 1983, was a professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the American University in Cairo, until his recent retirement.