David Livingstone

First edition of the final African journals of Scottish missionary, abolitionist and explorer David Livingstone, including his own account of the famous meeting with Stanley.

• Sold as a set of 2.
• David Livingstone (Scottish).
• Edited by Horace Waller (English).
• The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death.
• London: John Murray, 1874.
• xvi, 360, 6; viii, 346, 20 pages.
• Each volume with black-and-white frontispiece.
• Volume 1 with six full-page black-and-white plates and numerous smaller in-text illustrations, folded three-color map of Livingstone's "discoveries" tucked into pocket to rear; volume 2 with 14 full-page black-and-white plates and numerous smaller in-text illustrations, foldout three-color map to rear.
• Bound in original burgundy cloth bindings with gilt lettering and pictorial elements, brown coated endpapers.

Often portrayed as "a defender of British colonialism, a zealous missionary, and a symbol of the masculine drive to explore and to civilize Africa," the truth about David Livingstone is more nuanced (Petrusic, 20). He certainly still subscribed to many racist ideas that permeated white British culture in the 19th century, but he also rebuked the colonial efforts of his home country, writing numerous letters of support for the Xhosa people who were forced to push back against violent British forces.

Livingstone's veneration as a British cultural icon began with many purported "firsts" and "discoveries" covered extensively in newspapers (the native African guides who led him to these "unknown" geographical features had, of course, been aware of them for centuries). Stanley's account of how he "found" the wayward missionary and explorer sensationalized Livingstone's life and travels for the public, and the publication of The Last Journals of David Livingstone "elevated his status close to sainthood" (Petrusic, 21).

Horace Waller edited The Last Journals with help from Livingstone's African assistants Chuma and Susi. Covering the eight years before Livingstone's death, The Last Journals contain observations of the many African peoples he encountered, difficulties with wildlife, his missionary efforts and, of course, his meeting with Stanley. Christopher Petrusic, "Violence as Masculinity: David Livingstone's Radical Racial Politics in the Cape Colony and the Transvaal," The International History Review, vol. 26 no. 1.