Sir Richard Francis Burton: Explorer and Scholar

As a kid, I became a fan of Sir Richard Francis Burton via the science fiction novel series by Philip Jose Farmer called the Riverworld.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Jos%C3%A9_Farmer#Riverwo...

Burton was an amazing character and it's fun to read about his "real" life and contract that to my memories of his science fiction (after)life.

"Burton appointed his wife to be his literary executor, with absolute control over everything that he left behind. Among her first acts was to burn the manuscript of a translation of an Arabic work called ‘The Scented Garden,’ which, with elaborate annotations of the same sort as those appended to ‘The Arabian Nights,’ had occupied the last year of his life..."

Wow, that almost rivals Nietzsche's sister...

His grave is in Mortlake just round the corner from me, it is ridiculous, a stone tent with a ladder at the backso you can see in through a glass panel. Picture here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton#mediavi...

This guy was so bad ass! I first heard about Sir Richard via Antonio Gaceffo on the Love Affair Travel podcast, Antonio describes his life quite well (http://loveaffairtravel.com/antonio-graceffo-the-dust-of-911...)