Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey
by Ralph Leighton

List Price: $13.95
Our Price: $1.65
You Save: $12.30 (88%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

• ISBN13: 9780393320695
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Book Reviews of Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey

Book Review: This book is a fraud
Summary: 1 Stars

Summary of Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey

Always adventurous, Feynman was also a careful planner, recounts his friend and fellow drummer Ralph Leighton in this affectionate memoir. When a chance remark happened to dislodge a long-dormant memory of a faraway Siberian land called Tannu-Tuva, Feynman and Leighton set about scheming to get there--a program that included learning the little-described Tuvan language, picking up the rudiments of throat singing, and reading the scattered, hard-to-find literature concerning a place that, in Feynman's fond view, was as close to paradise as the earth contained. It also involved corresponding with scholars in what was still the Soviet Union and wrangling with bureaucrats to secure the necessary papers--all for the sake of seeing a country that had to be interesting, Feynman insisted, just because its capital, Kyzyl, had such an odd spelling.

These picaresque armchair adventures make up the bulk of Tuva or Bust, an unconventional mix of travelogue and scientific biography that's a pleasure to read at every turn. The book yields a memorable picture of Richard Feynman--who did not live to see Tuva, but whose memory is honored there today, thanks to Leighton's refusal to abandon their shared dream. --Gregory McNamee

Feynman, Richard Books

• Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( F )
• Professionals & Academics > Scientists
• Specific Groups > Adventurers & Explorers
• Travel
• General
• Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > General
• Science > Physics > General
• Travel > Asia > Russia > General
• Reference & Tips > Essays & Travelogues