Alone in West Africa
New York and London: Charles Scribner's Sons and T. Werner Laurie.
First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. [1912]. 404 pp, indexed, illustrated with frontis portrait and plates from photographs. Publisher's blue cloth stamped in gilt, with image of two native boys on the front board. Map endpapers. Light rubbing to extremities, spine slightly toned, else a fine copy. Gaunt, a native of Australia, decided she would make a living by writing after the death of her husband at an early age. She traveled to gather material, and wrote books about China, Turkestan, Siberia, and the Caribbean in addition to West Africa. Robinson (Wayward Women, pp181-82) says she was "down-to-earth, sympathetic, observant, tenacious, and adventurous...She was like Mary Kingsley in her disapproval of missionary methods and in questioning the Imperial Spirit held sacred by pre-Great War Britain, and like Miss Kingsley, too in that her books are an entertainment and an education."
Item #13057
Sold