The Albert N'yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, and Exploration of the Nile Sources

First editions.

Two royal 8vo volumes; gilt pictorial green cloth; pp. xxx + 395, ix + (iii) + 384, incl. index; numerous plates and illustrations in text; two maps in colours, including one large, folding. Hosken copies, with their bookplate to the front free endpapers, and that of Ralph Lewis Wedgwood to the pastedowns. Backstrips a little frittered at extremities; corners turned; hinges starting; some foxing to outermost leaves, occasional fox spot elsewhere. Good condition.

(Tenri Africana 1751; Czech, p. 15) "Speke and Grant in their accounts of their journeys had been a little too bizarre and at the same time pedestrian; Burton's treatises had been too sharp and too esoteric except for the sophisticated few; and Dr. Livingstone belonged to a high moral plane that was sometimes beyond the average reach. But Baker's book The Albert N'yanza was just right; he and his wife had the sort of reactions that everyone could enjoy and understand. One suffered and lived vicariously with this couple in the terrible African jungle just as one lived with the characters in a novel. And how brave she was. How gallant and determined he had been. They deserved their success. ... Before ever he got to England he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and his knighthood soon followed. The press was delighted with Sir Samuel and Lady Baker (now no longer a wreck but dressed in the height of fashion), and so was society in London. Presently they had the pleasure of seeing The Albert N'yanza run into three editions, and it was to be reprinted frequently in the years ahead." - Alan Moorhead: The White Nile