About the Author

Franklin E. Huffman, the author of Monks and Motorcycles, is a retired academic and diplomat.  As Professor of Linguistics and Asian Studies at Yale and Cornell universities from 1967 to 1985, he published nine books and numerous articles on Southeast Asian languages and linguistics.

In 1985 he joined the U.S. diplomatic service and was posted to London, Burma, Morocco, Paris, Cambodia and New Zealand before retirement from the foreign service in 1999. He wrote Monks and Motorcycles between post-retirement assignments to central Africa and Cambodia for the U.S. Department of State. 

Huffman is addicted to adventure travel, and prefers overland driving adventures. In addition to some eight trips around the world, he has made numerous trips by car across Europe, Central America and Africa.  Dr. Huffman lives in Washington, D.C., where he is working on another book describing his experiences as a diplomat in seven countries.