In Darkest Africa

In Darkest Africa (1890) is Henry M. Stanley’s own account of his last adventure on the African continent. At the turn of that century, the interior of the African continent was largely unknown to the American and European public. With the accounts of great explorers like Stanley, readers became thrilled by stories African expeditions and longed to follow in the footsteps of these explorers. In 1888, Stanley led an expedition to come to the aid of Mehmed Emin Pasha. The two volumes that compose In Darkest Africa; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria are his account of what happened.

In Darkest Africa was first published in an illustrated two-volume set by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1890. First editions have no additional printings indicated on the copyright page. This immensely popular text was published simultaneously in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch as well.

Charles Scribner’s Sons also released just 250 copies of a signed deluxe limited first edition of In Darkest Africa in 1890. This edition includes six additional full-page etchings (each signed by the artist), three folding maps, and more.