Clapp, Nicholas 1936-

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CLAPP, Nicholas 1936-

PERSONAL: Born May 1, 1936, in Providence, RI; son of Roger (a lawyer) and Helen Clapp; children: Cristina, Jennifer. Education: Brown University, B.A., 1957; University of South Carolina, M.A., 1962. Hobbies and other interests: Archaeology, photography, desert and mountain backpacking.

ADDRESSES: Office—1551 South Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035.

CAREER: Documentary film writer, producer, and director; author; lecturer. American Center of Oriental Research, member of board of trustees. Military service: Served in U.S. Army.

AWARDS, HONORS: Recipient of more than seventy awards for filmmaking, including several Academy Award nominations from the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences and Emmy Awards from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

WRITINGS:

The Road to Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1998.

Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Nicholas Clapp is a documentary filmmaker who has also authored books related to his primary career. His 1998 book The Road to Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands resulted from his work on a 1996 Nova documentary program for public television titled Lost City of Arabia. In Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen, he tracks the life of the Queen of Sheba, a powerful woman whose activities are recounted in both the Christian bible and the Koran.

While working on a project in southern Arabia for the World Wildlife Fund in the 1980s, Clapp became fascinated with the area. On his return to Los Angeles he began to research the region in hopes of developing another project. A book-shop owner recommended that Clapp read Bertram Thomas's Arabia Felix, which includes an account of the fabled ancient city of Ubar. Legends claim that Ubar, once a thriving trade center, descended into wickedness and was destroyed by Allah. Clapp was immediately intrigued, especially when clues from other sources, such as The Arabian Nights, suggested that the seemingly fictitious city actually existed. Though he was not trained as an archaeologist, Clapp set out to find Ubar—and succeeded.

Researching the city, conducting the expedition, and writing the resulting book took over a decade. Clapp read extensively about Ubar's history and determined its probable site. He also obtained help from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which allowed him to use radar images from the space shuttle to search for traces of the ancient city beneath the desert sands. Landsat and SPOT—remote sensing satellites—provided images that revealed evidence of tracks through the sand. These tracks were identified as old caravan routes that converged near the Empty Quarter where Ubar was believed to be buried. With a team of experts, including British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Clapp returned to Arabia to begin excavations.

The Road to Ubar, Clapp's account of his search for the site, recounts the difficulties and triumphs the team faced and its ultimate success in identifying the remains of an ancient city that once was an important link in the frankincense trade. While Clapp argues that the prosperous city was probably destroyed by a distant earthquake between 300 and 500 A.D., he also points out that the growth of Christianity in the region, which diminished demand for frankincense, was also instrumental in the city's decline as a mercantile center.

The Road to Ubar attracted favorable attention, and soon appeared on the Los Angeles Times best-seller list. New York Times Book Review critic Michiko Kakutani praised it as "a delightfully readable, if often highly speculative, volume that's part travel journal, part Walter Mittyesque daydream and part archeological history." Kakutani pointed out, however, that the chapter in which Clapp uses myth and imagination in an attempt to recreate the life of an Ubar ruler, weakens the book and "fails to fulfill any useful function" in an otherwise "gripping real-life story."

Sheba is based on similar research by Clapp, who traveled through Jerusalem, Arabia, and Ethiopia on the trail of the historic queen, and determines that Sheba was actually Queen Bilquis, ruler of Saba— modern-day Yemen. Calling the volume "exciting, fast moving, and richly illustrated," School Library Journal contributor Christine C. Menefee added that Clapp's "observant eye, pitch-perfect ear, and unfailing sense of humor" will attract readers. While noting the author's tendency toward sensationalism, a Publishers Weekly contributor dubbed Clapp "a genial travel companion with a good eye for detail" and praised Sheba as a "well-written and informative book that will not disappoint."