Savage Africa: Being the Narrative of a Tour in Equatorial, Southwestern, and Northwestern Africa: With Notes on the Habits of the Gorilla; on the Existence of Unicorns and Tailed Men; On the Slave-Trade; on the Origin, Character, and Capabilities of
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1864.
First American Edition. Hardcover. Good. xi, [1], 13-452 pp + 6 pp ads, with 28 illustrations and a folding map. Original brown cloth, rubbed through at the corners, chipped at spine ends, tear along rear joint. Mild spine slant, binding otherwise sound, one page torn and repaired with archival tape. Reade (1838-1875) embarked on a tour of western Africa in 1861. The resulting travelogue is characterized in the DNB as "essentially that of a dilettante," "a miscellany of observations on the people and wildlife of that region, in which he paid particular attention to arguments then current about the character of gorillas and the existence of cannibalism." Nonetheless, on his return to England, Reade delivered papers to many scientific societies, and his controversial ideas about the futility of Christian missions and the value of polygamy in Africa were defended by Richard Burton.
Item #13134
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