Livingstone (Uncorrected proof copy; 1973)

Extracts from the dustjacket blurb:

• "[Livingstone] went to Africa as a medical missionary in 1841 [when he was 28] and stayed for thirty years, returning home only twice for a total of two years. Missionary, geographer, astronomer, ethnologist, anthropologist, chemist and botanist, he discovered the Victoria Falls, the source of the Congo, and made the first authenticated European crossing of the continent."
• "Hailed by the Victorians as an explorer unrivalled since the Elizabethans, Livingstone was also revered as a near saint, epitomising every moral virtue . . ."
• "A myth in his own lifetime."
• "[Tim Jeal] shows this myth to have been a bizarre distortion, and in doing so reveals Livingstone as a complex and paradoxical figure: a man capable of self-sacrifice and ruthless cruelty, dogged through his life by self-doubts, contradictions and failure."
• "It will come as a great surprise to many people to learn that Livingstone actually failed as a missionary (with only one convert, who lapsed), failed also in his search for the Nile's source, failed as a leader of Europeans, and failed as a husband and father."
• "His greatest, and hitherto unrecognized, historical impact was in the field of colonial politics . . . it was Livingstone's ideals and influence which, years after his death, played a major part in establishing British imperial power in Africa."
• "There have been three major biographies of Livingstone since his death, all written by clergymen . . . In this biography [published to coincide with Livingstone's death in 1873], for the first time, Tim Jeal seeks to separate the man from the deeply ingrained legend, using an abundance of new source material."

Colour-illustrated matt dustjacket, tan cloth-boards, silver to the spine, plain endpapers, xvii + 427 pp of text, with 11 line illustrations and 6 maps in the text, notes, appendixes, bibliography and index + 27 inserted illustrations on art paper. Unclipped dustjacket: "price approx 3.00 pounds net".

CONDITION. The dustjacket is lightly chipped at the extremities. The binding is tight. The covers are very lightly bumped and rubbed. There is an inscription on the front free endpaper, but no other markings. The contents, including the plates, are complete and undiscoloured, making this a near-fine copy overall.