History of The Book
The first manuscript was written by Stegner in 1956 and was submitted to Aramco shortly thereafter. According to Discovery!'s new introduction officials at the company were hesitant to publish the manuscript due to the political situation in the Middle East with the nationalization of the Suez canal and the pan-Arabism of Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. The manuscript remained unpublished until a company editor found it in 1967.
Stegner and Aramco compromised on the contents of the book and it began being published in serial form in Saudi Aramco World magazine in 1970. Stegner's hesitations on writing a public relations campaign for a company were included in the book as well as some of his critiques.
The book was released worldwide in September 2007 with additional annotations, a bibliography, an introduction by author and journalist Thomas Lippman and unreleased photographs.
Read more about this topic: Discovery! The Search For Arabian Oil
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