The Peking Man Is Missing

Peking Man is the collective name for the famously important collection of human fossils unearthed near Beijing in the 1920s and early 30s. In late 1941, with China in chaos, the bones were moved for safekeeping only to disappear forever. The fate of Peking Man became one of the great unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century. Claire Hirschberg, later Claire Taschdjian, was one of the last people in the world known to have seen Peking Man; she was secretary to an anthropologist who directed the excavation. Only 27 years old when the fossils left her workplace, she was 63 when she published this fictional account of what might have happened. Taschdjian's fiction is rich in wonderful characters: a murderous Marine who will stop at nothing to profit from the bones; a frivolous young beauty who hides the bones for years without realizing it; a relentless Chinese agent who assumes multiple identities in his lifelong search for the fossils; and Claire herself as Kathy, the upright secretary who trusts all the wrong people. Taschdjian's terse journalistic style enables the reader to take in stride the most amazing mishaps, crimes and machinations. But then she herself was no stranger to dangerous living. She successfully concealed her Jewish background from the Nazis and ended her days a Catholic. She survived the Rape of Nanking, documenting the fighting with her photos. This edition of Taschdjian's book by Felony & Mayhem contains fascinating appendices, including archival photographs, details on the many attempts to find the fossils, and a biography of the remarkable woman who so compellingly mixed fact with fiction in The Peking Man Is Missing.