Howard Carter: Before Tutankhamun

English archeologist Carter's discovery in 1922 of the almost intact tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun has overshadowed his other impressive achievements. This attractive companion volume to an exhibit at the British Museum culminates in the excavation of Tut's tomb but focuses on the determined Egyptologist's 30 years of earlier fieldwork, including his explorations of Thebes and the tombs of Hatsheput and Tuthmosis IV. Taylor, a curator at the British Museum, and former curator Reeves have stitched together letters and diary excerpts of Carter and his contemporaries, augmented by 200 plates (80 in color) featuring museum photographs and Carter's own watercolors and excavation photos. The result is a rare glimpse into the private obsession of a tremendously energetic, irascible, suspicious pragmatist, a self-made man who, by dint of hard work and luck, clawed his way to the top of the Egyptological pyramid. (May)