Journey to Central Africa; or Life and Landscapes from Egypt to the Negro Kingdoms of the White Nile
Author: Taylor, Bayard (1825-1878)
Year: 1854
Publisher: G P Putnam & Co
Place: New York
Description:
vi+522+[2] pages engraved portrait frontispiece, four tinted lithographed plates. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 5 1/2"). Issued in brown cloth with gilt stamped pictorial with repeated blind stamp on back cover. Spine tilt lettering with small pictorial at heal. 10th edition.
Taylor took the journeys solely to restore himself mentally, and that his principal interest were not historical or geographical, but simply "the desire to participate in their free, vigorous, semi-barbaric life. I have taken it for granted that the reader will feel more interested, as I was, in a live Arab, than a dead Pharaoh." Taylor was one of the most popular travel writers of his time producing eleven volumes of his own accounts and lecturing throughout the United States to large audiences. From 1846, when his first travel book appeared, until his death, he never quit traveling or writing about it. He went to places and attempted feats not usual for travelers, thereby making accessible largely unknown regions of the world to a popular audience and making himself a romantic figure. Describing people and places vividly, he enthusiastically participated in several of the cultures he visited, often attempting to assume the characteristics of those persons whom he was observing; this this means he engaged his readers more fully than most writers of the genera of this time.
Condition:
Corners bumped and rubbed through, spine ends chipped away, shelf wear, hinges rubbed, book plate removed from front paste down. A better than good copy.
Year: 1854
Publisher: G P Putnam & Co
Place: New York
Description:
vi+522+[2] pages engraved portrait frontispiece, four tinted lithographed plates. Small octavo (7 1/2" x 5 1/2"). Issued in brown cloth with gilt stamped pictorial with repeated blind stamp on back cover. Spine tilt lettering with small pictorial at heal. 10th edition.
Taylor took the journeys solely to restore himself mentally, and that his principal interest were not historical or geographical, but simply "the desire to participate in their free, vigorous, semi-barbaric life. I have taken it for granted that the reader will feel more interested, as I was, in a live Arab, than a dead Pharaoh." Taylor was one of the most popular travel writers of his time producing eleven volumes of his own accounts and lecturing throughout the United States to large audiences. From 1846, when his first travel book appeared, until his death, he never quit traveling or writing about it. He went to places and attempted feats not usual for travelers, thereby making accessible largely unknown regions of the world to a popular audience and making himself a romantic figure. Describing people and places vividly, he enthusiastically participated in several of the cultures he visited, often attempting to assume the characteristics of those persons whom he was observing; this this means he engaged his readers more fully than most writers of the genera of this time.
Condition:
Corners bumped and rubbed through, spine ends chipped away, shelf wear, hinges rubbed, book plate removed from front paste down. A better than good copy.
