Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Description: First edition of Stanley's classic work. Octavo, 2 volumes, bound in the original cloth, gilt titles to the spine. Two steel-engraved portrait frontispieces, three folding maps, with numerous illustrations. In very good condition, bookplate. 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
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Description: 2 vols. With six etchings and one hundred and fifty woodcut illustrations and maps. Demy Quarto, publisher's 3/4 morocco over gilt-decorated vellum, t.e.g. First edition; No. 226 of 250 copies, signed by Henry M. Stanley. Old ink signature in each volume (two signatures in Vol. I); dampstaining to a few dozen leaves including the frontispiece portrait; etchings foxed; vellum soiled and pulling away at the areas where it meets the leather spine and corners; corners rubbed.
Seller: Jeffrey H. Marks, Rare Books, ABAA, Rochester, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$4000.00 + shipping
Description: Mounted photogravure portrait frontispieces of Stanley on India paper; 6 etchings printed in sepia, signed in pencil by G. Montbard; 150 woodcut illustrations, protected with tissue; 3 color folding maps, 2 of which are large linen-backed area maps; 103 in-text illustrations. 2 volumes. [2], xvi, 529; [2], xvi, 472 pages. Short thick 4tos, rebound in older 3/4 dark brown calf over plain drab boards; simple gilt-lettered spines with raised bands; uncut edges top edges gilt. New York.: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1890. Limited deluxe large-paper edition -- number 116 of 250 copies, signed by Stanley. Leather is rubbed and with some flaking at joints, still a very good(+) sturdy copy, very clean but for ownership bookplates in each volume. Account of Stanley's expedition to rescue Emin Pasha. The expedition "accomplished great things; it had made notable additions to African geography and ethnology. Stanley called for the highest qualities of leadership" (--DNB). This immensely popular account was published simultaneously in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch.
Seller: Argosy Book Store, ABAA, ILAB, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$10450.00 + shipping
Description: 2 volumes. Edition de Luxe. One of a limited edition of 250 numbered copies signed by Stanley on the reverse of the half-title. With 6 etchings and 150 woodcut illustrations and 3 folding maps. Each of the etchings are signed in pencil by the artist. Large 4to, contemporary three-quarter brown morocco and with vellum covered sides, gilt lettered on the spines, gilt lettered and with gilt flag vignette on the upper covers, t.e.g. and all edges untrimmed. xv, 529; xi, 472 pp. Index in each volume. A lovely example of this rare set, the bindings unusually fresh with the morocco and vellum in an especially good state of preservation, extremely fresh and clean internally. Only a light bit of aging to the vellum, quite unusual in this condition. VERY SCARCE LIMITED EDITION OF ONE OF THE PRINCIPLE WRITINGS OF ONE OF THE GREATEST EXPLORERS OF THE DARK CONTINENT. "By 1885 Stanley had become deeply interested in the schemes of Mr. (afterwards Sir) William Mackinnon, chairman of the British India Steam Navigation Company, for establishing a British protectorate in East Equatorial Africa, and it was believed that this object could be furthered at the same time that relief was afforded to Emin Pasha, governor of the the Equatorial Province of Egypt, who had been isolated by the Mahdist rising of 1881-1885.Instead of choosing the direct route Stanley decided to go by way of the Congo, as thereby he would be able to render services to the infant Congo State, then encountering great difficulties with the Zanzibar Arabs established on the Upper Congo" (EB). Stanley and Tippoo Tib, the chief of the Congo Arabs, entered into an agreement for the latter to assume governorship of the Stanley Falls station and supply carriers for the Emin relief expedition, and then travelled up the Congo to Bangala together. They parted ways at Stanley Falls and Stanley started his trip toward Albert Nyanza, leaving a rear-guard at Yambuya on the lower Aruwimi under the command of Major E.M. Barttelot. Stanleys journey to Albert Nyanza became a hazardous 160-day march through "nothing but miles and miles, endless miles of forest" that claimed the lives of over half of Stanleys men from starvation, disease, and hostility of the natives. Finally upon the arrival at Albert Nyanza, Stanley achieved communication with Emin but was troubled by the non-arrival of his rear-guard. He retraced his steps back to Yambuya to find that Tippoo Tib had broken faith, Barttelot had been murdered, and the camp was in disarray and only one European was left. Stanley again set out for Albert Nyanza, where Stanley, Emin Pasha, and the survivors of the rear-guard began the return journey to Zanzibar by way of Uganda, a trip during which he discovered the Mountains of the Moon (Ruwenzori), traced the course of the Semliki River, discovered Albert Edward Nyanza and the great southwestern gulf of Victorian Nyanza. Of Stanleys original 646 men, only 246 survived. This account of his adventures was wildly popular and published in six languages. This particular edition is extremely scarce in such excellent condition.
Seller: Buddenbrooks, Inc., Newburyport, MA, U.S.A.
STANLEY Henry M.. In Darkest Africa. , 1890.
Price: US$15000.00 + shipping
Description: STANLEY, Henry M. In Darkest Africa or the Quest, Rescue and Retreat of Emin Governor of Equatoria. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1890. Two volumes. Large thick quarto (10 by 12 inches), publisher's three-quarter dark brown morocco, raised bands, vellum boards, top edges gilt, uncut. $15,000.Deluxe signed limited first edition, American issue, number 39 of only 250 copies signed by Stanley, of the classic 19th-century account of African exploration. Profusely illustrated with engraved frontispieces, 38 mounted plates on India paper, six additional full-page etchings (each signed by the artist), three color folding maps (two backed in cloth), a folding table of comparative vocabularies, and numerous mounted, in-text India-prints.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 any modern explorer. His 1887 mission to relieve the besieged governor of Egypt, his last mission to Africa, ended miserably when Stanley arrived only to learn that the governor did not care to be relieved, but instead was angry at the Englishman for interfering in his affairs. This account contains the harrowing details of Stanley's journey through the nearly impenetrable Ituri, or Great Congo, Forest, which he traversed not once but three times over the course of his travels. The conditions were brutal; sometimes the expedition could achieve no more than three or four hundred yards an hour. Along the way Stanley compiled important data on the Pygmies and discovered the Ruwenzori, or "Mountains of the Moon." The perilous journey nearly cost Stanley his life, and only a third of the men with whom he set out returned alive. Published in the same year and using the same sheets as the English issue (also limited to 250 copies). Hosken, 189. Text and plates generally clean and fine, bindings mildly toned. An extremely good, handsome copy of the scarce deluxe signed edition.
Seller: Bauman Rare Books, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.