How I Found Livingstone

Toronto: James Adam, Subscription Bookseller, 1873.  Probably first Canadian edition from the U. S. Scribner, Armstrong edition of 1872 whose notice appears on the title page verso (pp. xxiii, 736, appendix, index, adverts). Octavo (23 cm) in publisher’s green pebbled cloth, bright gilt titles and decorations; frontispiece, six maps (four folding, with some creases worn through) and twenty-eight full-page engravings, twenty-five in-text illustrations as called for.  Likely, an interested Canadian book buyer would apply to Mr. Adam who would, upon payment of a subscription fee, furnish a bound copy of the text, by arrangement of some sort with Scribner, Armstrong. The pebbled green cloth may have been a special order or merely one of a number of coloured cloths originating with the U. S. publisher. It does seem, though, a trifle unusual as other copies listed for sale are in brown or orange cloth, when not re-bound. A previous owner, also a Livingstone, whose dated signature appears on the half title  (as well as on an endpaper), was a county judge in Ontario, but I was unable to find a familial connection to the missionary explorer. Skilfully rebacked in matching green, retaining the entire backstrip in good order; about 75 pages toward the end show a mild moisture mark in a top inside corner comprising approximately 10% of the pages’ surface; otherwise, a clean, bright, sound copy.  Copies with complete sets of maps and plates are apparently scarce.