First American edition. A biographical account of Stanley by the soldier, diplomat, and historian Sir Ian Anstruther Bt (1922-2007), which was first published in London in 1956 under the title I Presume. Stanley’s Triumph and Disaster and then published the following year in this edition as Dr. Livingstone, I Presume. Casada judged it a ‘solid study based on fairly extensive research, some of which is in manuscript materials. Not a full biography but a detailed analysis of his search for, finding of, and ensuing debate on Livingstone. Quite good on Stanley’s early life and succeeds in dispelling at least some of the mystery surrounding these years. One of the better works on Stanley’.

This copy was formerly in the noted collection of the explorer and bibliophile Quentin Keynes, who travelled extensively in Africa throughout the second half of the twentieth century, and collected a remarkable library of books and manuscripts relating to the exploration of Africa, particularly during the nineteenth century. Some of these works provided the basis for Keynes’s Roxburghe Club book The Search for the Source of the Nile: Correspondence between Captain Richard Burton, Captain John Speke and Others, from Burton’s Unpublished East African Letter Book; together with Other Related Letters and Papers (London, 1999) and his collection was also a resource that he drew upon for his own travels in Africa. It was also a resource for writer and scholars studying Stanley and the history of African exploration, including Tim Jeal who used material from ‘Quentin Keynes’s unique African collection’ in his Stanley (p. 477).

Liniger-Goumaz and Hellinga, Stanley, 549; cf. Casada, Dr. David Livingstone and Sir Henry Morton Stanley, 1551 (1st ed.).


* * *

You may also enjoy reading our new Africa catalogue!

Note for UK collectors: this and all our listed books and manuscripts are available directly from our website: www.typeandforme.com

International collectors: please contact us to arrange shipping and order.