Through the Dark Continent

Henry M. STANLEY

Item#: 127102 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Through the Dark Continent
Through the Dark Continent
Through the Dark Continent
Through the Dark Continent

"THAT INDOMITABLE RESOLUTION": STANLEY'S THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT

STANLEY, Henry M. Through the Dark Continent. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1878. Two volumes. Thick octavo, original pictorial green cloth embossed in red and gilt.

First American edition, detailing Stanley's three-year journey through Africa that not only revealed the source of the Congo but also "left an enduring impress upon history," with 10 color maps, including two large folding maps, and profusely illustrated with frontispieces, 34 engraved plates and over 100 in-text wood-engravings, in original decorative cloth.

Perhaps no adventurer is more closely connected with Africa than Lord Stanley, whose various expeditions did more to reveal the nature of that continent than those of any other modern explorer. In the fall of 1874, with funds from the New York Herald and the London Daily Telegraph and a mandate to clarify certain geographical conundrums left by other great explorers, Stanley set out on an incredibly well-equipped journey to the heart of Africa. He emerged on the Atlantic coast three years later. "The difficulties of this amazing march…were prodigious. Stanley triumphed over them by the exercise of that indomitable resolution, invincible patience, and sagacious judgment which entitle him to a place in the very front rank of the world's greatest explorers. This journey of 1874-77 left an enduring impress upon history: for out of it grew the Congo State and the Anglo-Egyptian dominion on the Upper Nile… Incidentally Stanley solved a geographical problem of the first importance, and revealed the estuary of the Congo as the entrance to one of the mightiest rivers of the earth" (DNB). Color folding maps in rear pockets each measure approximately 29 inches by 34 inches. Published in London the same year. See Hosken, 189.

Folding maps with a few short splits at folds, short closed tear to map of Eastern Equatorial Africa. Rear free endpaper of Volume II creased and with tear along outer margin. Inner paper hinges expertly reinforced, light rubbing to clean cloth, bindings sound, gilt bright. An attractive, extremely good set.

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