J. E. Howard

author

J. E. Howard

Best known for a single surviving work, this little-known writer left behind a vivid memorial to exploration in British India. The book centers on William Watts McNair, the survey officer remembered as the first European explorer of Kafiristan.

1 Audiobook

Memoir of William Watts McNair, Late of "Connaught House," Mussooree, of the Indian Survey Department, the First European Explorer of Kafiristan

Memoir of William Watts McNair, Late of "Connaught House," Mussooree, of the Indian Survey Department, the First European Explorer of Kafiristan

by J. E. Howard

About the author

Almost nothing reliable seems to be recorded online about J. E. Howard as a person, which makes this author something of a mystery. What can be confirmed is that Howard wrote Memoir of William Watts McNair, Late of "Connaught House," Mussooree, of the Indian Survey Department, the First European Explorer of Kafiristan, a work published in the late nineteenth century and now preserved by Project Gutenberg and library catalogues.

That memoir is dedicated to the Royal Geographical Society of London and presents the life and service of William Watts McNair, who joined the Indian Survey Department in 1867 and died in 1889. The book places Howard in the world of imperial geography, surveying, and exploration writing, and suggests an interest in documenting the careers of men whose work unfolded in difficult and distant regions.

Because so little biographical detail about Howard is easy to verify, the author is best approached through the surviving book itself: a concise historical portrait shaped by admiration, careful record-keeping, and a strong sense of memorial purpose.