Honigsbaum, Mark 1960–

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Honigsbaum, Mark 1960–

PERSONAL:

Born 1960, in London, England; married; two children. Education: Attended New College, Oxford University.

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Journalist. Observer, London, England, former chief reporter.

WRITINGS:

The Fever Trail: In Search of the Cure for Malaria, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2002.

Valverde's Gold: In Search of the Last Great Inca Treasure, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to numerous magazines, including Guardian, the London Sunday Times, Gentleman's Quarterly, and Vogue.

SIDELIGHTS:

In his first book, The Fever Trail: In Search of the Cure for Malaria, journalist Mark Honigsbaum reveals the history of malaria and the drug that cures it. Malaria is a disease that is spread to humans by mosquitoes. It was carried quickly throughout the world by European explorers and by slaves, who brought the disease with them from South America and Africa. The only cure for malaria before 1900 was quinine, which comes from the bark of the rare cinchona tree located in the Andes region of South America. In The Fever Trail, Honigsbaum retraces the routes of three explorers in their search for the cinchona tree. Those nineteenth-century explorers were Richard Spruce, a botanist; Charles Ledger, a trader; and Sir Clements Markham, a historian. Their goal was to find the tree and take seeds from it to transplant in India and the island of Java. Library Journal contributor Kathy Arsenault called the book "both a gripping adventure tale and a sobering reminder of malaria's continuing impact."

While in Ecuador researching The Fever Trail, Honigsbaum became intrigued by the tale of a lost Inca treasure. Subsequently, he spent the next two years in search of it, and his adventures are documented in his second book Valverde's Gold: In Search of the Last Great Inca Treasure. "Honigsbaum's entertaining book describes the physical and mental journeys he undertook in his quest," remarked Sarah Crowden in her review of the book for Geographical. Like others before him, the author based his quest on a document known as Derrotero de Valverde (Valverde's path), which was written by a Spanish conquistador who was alleged to have married an Inca princess. The document offers topographical clues to where the treasure is supposedly stashed, which, according to legend, is in a secret cave somewhere in the mountains of Ecuador. Countless adventurers have sought unsuccessfully to claim the treasure, many of them meeting their demise as a result.

"Honigsbaum lived to tell the tale, and in his [book] … he retraces the rich history behind the hoard that touched off his own bout of hot-headed treasure-hunting," observed New York Sun contributor Felix Gillette. "It is both a suspenseful mystery and an entertaining taxonomy of a certain type, the treasure hunter. His writing is crisp and witty, and he has a winsome knack for uncovering shiny nuggets of insight from dull-looking surroundings," added Gillette.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

African Business, February, 2002, Stephen Williams, review of The Fever Trail: In Search of the Cure for Malaria, p. 49.

Booklist, August 1, 2004, George Cohen, review of Valverde's Gold: In Search of the Last Great Inca Treasure, p. 1892.

Entertainment Weekly, August 20, 2004, Adam B. Vary, review of Valverde's Gold, p. 132.

Geographical, October 1, 2004, Sarah Crowden, review of Valverde's Gold, p. 80.

Guardian (London, England), August 14, 2004, review of Valverde's Gold.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2002, review of The Fever Trail, p. 309; June 15, 2004, review of Valverde's Gold, p. 567.

Library Journal, April 1, 2002, Kathy Arsenault, review of The Fever Trail, p. 130; June 15, 2004, review of Valverde's Gold, p. 567.

Mother Jones, May-June, 2002, Paul Taylor, "The Silent Plutocracy," p. 77.

New York Sun, August 24, 2004, Felix Gillette, review of Valverde's Gold.

New York Times, October 10, 2004, Bruce Barcott, review of Valverde's Gold.

Publishers Weekly, April 8, 2002, review of The Fever Trail, p. 218; June 21, 2004, review of Valverde's Gold, p. 55.

Scientific American, June, 2002, Claire Panosian Dunavan, "Men, Money, and Malaria: In the Quest for a Cure, Idealism Fell Victim to Greed," p. 102.

Spectator, November 24, 2001, Andrew Barrow, review of The Fever Trail, p. 45.

World and I, January 1, 2005, "A Tale of Lost Treasure That Proves True."