[ R. P. Lister, author and artist. ] Unpublished typescript of 'Prester John: The King from the East', 'Part One: The First News of Prester John'. With typed 'Note to the Publisher' and a few autograph corrections.

Green folder. [4] + iii + 89pp., 4to. Each page on a separate piece of paper, and the whole enclosed in a folder, on which Lister has written his name and address, and 'Prester John | R. P. Lister | 1st Carbon'. In very good condition, lightly aged, in aged and worn folder. With two-page 'Note to the Publisher' and page of 'Contents', the latter with dates pencilled alongside the 25 sections. In the 'Note to the Publisher' Lister explains that the carbon is 'not the final version' of 'a book on Prester John': 'Most of the sections are fully researched and will remain much as they are; a few are based on quite superficial reading and need further research. But the essential matter is here and the form of the book is as it is finally intended to be'. He also describes his intentions for the other two sections, to be titled 'The Letter of Prester John' and 'Prester John in Ethiopia'. Lister ends by explaining for the publisher his central thesis: 'The legend persisted for four or five centuries. Prester John only vanished away when the exploration of the world had gone so far that there was simply no place left where he might still be hiding. The legend bears some resemblance to the King Arthur legend, in that it brought a promise of aid in the dark time when all is lost; an idea so reassuring that men are exceedingly loth to part with it.' Lister writes in a remarkably clear and readable style, and the work is divided into 25 sections, with titles including 'The Magi', 'How Alexander the Great Waited for the Tigris to Freeze', 'How the Northmen Failed to Communicate with the Patzinaks', 'Some Parenthetic Remarks about Written and Unwritten History', 'How the Pope Happened to be at Viterbo', 'Otto of Freisinger and Zengi the Atabeg', 'Sindbad the Sailor and the Emerald Sceptre', 'The Black Cathayans', 'Sanjar the Seljuk Sultan'. The book was not published, but Lister did publish a work on a similar theme, 'The Secret History of Genghis Khan' (1969).