"Tutankhamen: Life and Death of a Pharaoh", Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, Graphis Society, New York (1963).

Probably the first book published about Tut for the masses after World War II. Printed when books were routinely produced in high quality materials, the big appeal of this book is the color photographs with a black and white thumbnail index of many of the objects from the tomb along with good reproductions of Harry Burton's original black and white photos.

Nowadays the historical parts of the book are sometimes dismissed as unwarranted speculation. One reviewer said if you want fiction about the era, just read Mika Waltari's "The Egyptian" not Madame Desroches-Noblecourt. But that's an overly harsh judgment. C'mon, any statement about what happened in Egypt three to four thousand years ago is pretty much speculation. The text, admittedly, is a bit difficult to follow as it tends to jump around and it assumes the readers knows what they're reading about beforehand. Madame Desroches-Noblecourt's opinions on who was Tut's father (Amenhotep III) and mother (Tiye) are less accepted today (but still may be true) and some of her claims (like the two mummified fetuses are part of the Egyptian rites of rebirth) are probably not correct. Still it's a good book for Tut fans to have.