Missing book jacket White mark on front cover McGraw-Hill, 1964 first edition, 433 pages The Explorer, tells the story of Nicolas Hale, a transplanted Vermonter who was inspired by Hiram Bingham's amazing discovery of Machu Picchu in Peru. Nicolas had avoided marriage until his desire for a son to carry on his profession and inherit his name compelled him to propose to Margaret Porterfield, an aristocratic young Virginian whom he envisions as the type of woman he would like to be the mother of his son. He has been her ideal suitor for a long time, and she quickly agrees to a fast marriage just five days before he departs on a new exploring venture in Peru. He doesn't hide from her that she'll never be able to share his life there, and that exploring is his only great passion, and that she would have to endure long periods of separation from him. Nicolas only visits on occasion over the next five years, spending the majority of his time in the Andes in quest of the hidden city whose discovery, if his aspirations are realized, will offer him fame and prosperity, but his absence leads to a separation from his wife and a marriage that ends with disastrous consequences.