In Darkest Africa or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria.

STANLEY, Henry M.

$4,000.00

Item Number: 147833

London: Sampson, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1890.

First edition of this classic work. Octavo, original cloth, cartographic endpapers in pale green, frontispiece in each volume plus 36 plates, 3 folding maps (2 in color), and 150 woodcut illustrations. Association copy, inscribed by the author in the year of publication on the front free endpaper of volume one, “To Professor Blaikie of Edinburgh reciprocating with many thanks his late courtesy, July 3rd, 1890, London.” The recipient, Dr. William Garden Blaikie was the author of the definitive biography of Dr. Livingstone: The Personal Life of David Livingstone, with materials chiefly from Livingstone’s unpublished Journals and Correspondence in the possession of his family, at whose request the book was undertaken. In very good condition with some light rubbing to volume one. Trade editions are exceptionally rare signed and inscribed.

Stanley and Emin entered Bagamoyo on their donkeys, some way ahead of their caravan, on 4 December, 1889. It was sensational news. Emin was safe, although the expedition to relieve him had cost the lives of at least 700 people. With the good journalist's facility for rapid reporting, Stanley began his account of the rescue at the Hotel Victoria, Cairo, on 25 January 1890, working on it continuously for fifty days at the rate of 20 printed pages per day. The first portion of the manuscript was delivered to the printer's on 12 March and the last proof sheet returned for printing by Clowes on 3 June. Hosken p. 189