Restless Blood: Frans Blom, Explorer and Maya Archaeologist

Maya archaeologist Frans Blom (1893-1963) was among the last great explorers in Mesoamerica and did pioneering work at major Olmec and Maya sites such as La Venta, Palenque, Tonina, and Uxmal. Restless Blood is the first biography of Blom to draw extensively on archival sources in Denmark, Mexico, and the U.S. Born into a wealthy Danish family in Copenhagen, Blom first came to Mexico in 1919 and worked his way from an oil scout to become director of the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University in New Orleans and a successful Maya scholar, known for his great expeditions and for books like Tribes and Temples (1926-27). Moving back to Mexico in 1943, Blom and his second wife Getrude Duby founded Na Bolom, the famous research center and library in the highland town of San Cristóbal de las Casas. Blom's story is one of great success and terrible downfall, torn as he was between his eminent intuition, alcoholism, and his all too restless blood. Illustrated with more than 100 photos and drawings, many previously unpublished. With a preface by Michael D. Coe.