Camera Adventures in the African Wilds

Published simultaneously in 1910 by both William Heinemann (London) and Doubleday, Page & Company (America) with two different cover formats, the book was re-published by Heinemann in 1913 as the new, cheaper edition (fewer photographs and different boards). The book is primarily about photographing big game across the Athi Plains, but the final chapters are how to arrange a trip to British East Africa, its cost and equipment, photographic hints and a list of the important game found in British East Africa and Uganda.

Condition: Dark blue teal hardbound cloth boards with the title and author in debossed gold gilt on the spine and cover which are bright and in beautiful condition. The rhinoceros in gold gilt on the front board shows no rubbing. Publisher emblem debossed to rear board. The spine back strip and boards show no wear but there are slight cosmetic blemishes to the front board. Slight rubbing along the front gutter. All corners are sharp but have slight wear at the tips. Spine is straight with no cracking at the endpapers, hinges are strong. The overall text block is solid with all pages firmly attached but with darkening along all sides. Age tanning throughout with light foxing on endpapers. Interior text pages are clean with no tears, cracks, or previous owner marks, text is printed on heavy cardstock. Illustrated with map and over 100 black & white photographs taken by the author and printed on white glossy paper.

Arthur Vaux Venner Radclyffe Dugmore (1870 – 1955) was a Welsh born naturalist and wildlife photographer, painter, printmaker, and author who began his artistic career by studying painting but after arriving America in 1899, by 1902 he had been elected to The Camera Club of New York. He went on to exhibit in London (1903), at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition (1905) and doing additional cover designs for Country Life in America 1906 thru 1908. A naturalist and sportsman, he took part in his first photo safari in Newfoundland in 1907 and in Kenya in 1909-1910. Dugmore took up the study of painting so that as he undertook the scientific study of natural history, he would be able to depict wild life through his art. By 1931 he was known for his films as well as his many books on wild animals. Although Dugmore was forty-two years old when World War I broke out, his influential friends helped him "to obtain a commission in an infantry regiment." He served in the trenches during the period leading up to the First Battle of the Somme, but he became incapacitated and no longer fit for duty after he was gassed. Post World War I from his base in New York his career flourished with Lowell Thomas writing his biography in 1931.