Howard Carter (1874-1939), the renowned archaeologist who discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamun, was a private and stubborn man whose perfectionism frequently got him into trouble. Had he been more diplomatic, he might have avoided much personal misery, but then he might never have discovered the tomb.

Howard Carter was born in London, England, on May 9, 1874, to a lower middle class family. The youngest of 11 children of Samuel John Carter, a painter of animals and an illustrator for the Illustrated London News, and Martha Joyce Sands, he was raised in the small English village of Swaffham by two aunts. Because he was frequently ill as a youth, he was partially tutored at home. His father taught him how to draw. Carter felt his education to be minimal, which frequently frustrated him. His defensiveness and abruptness with people might have stemmed from his insecurity about this lack of a...