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Up For Sale Today is

African Game Trails
An Account of the African Wanderings
of an American Hunter-Naturalist

by

Theodore Roosevelt

Leather. 8vo. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 1910. xxiv, 583 pgs. Maps. Illustrated with 200+ photos by Kermit Roosevelt. First Edition/First Printing (with Conkey/Hammond seal present to the verso page).

Bound in 3/4 maroon leather and matching cloth boards with gilt titles to the spine. Boards are scuffed and worn with scuffing present to the edges of the boards. Previous owner's name present to the FFEP.. Text is free of marks. Outside of the spine, the binding is tight and solid.

While he is best known for being the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt is also remembered for his immense love of nature, animals, and game hunting. "African Game Trails" is Roosevelt's memoirs about a hunting trip to Africa that he took with his son Kermit in 1908. In the text, he vividly describes the country in exotic detail. In full detail, he depicts the enthusiastic thrill of the hunt as well as the beauty of the animals he tracked. He also portrays his interactions with other famous game hunters such as Major Boyd Cunningham and Frederick Selous, who is known as one of the last big game hunters in Africa. As a naturalist, Roosevelt was immensely interested in the native flora and fauna of East Africa. He included descriptions of fascinating plants and animals that are only found on the continent, introducing the natural landscape of Africa to readers who had never seen it. Roosevelt was a firm believer in portraying wildlife as naturally as possible; he even wrote a number of essays denouncing anthropomorphism in literature. He wanted his works to be as realistic and lifelike as possible, so that "African Game Trails" is a true representation of the beauty and majesty that Roosevelt saw during his trip to East Africa. His adventures in the untamed jungles of the continent are as thrilling now as they were when the book was first published in the early twentieth century.

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

In March 1909, shortly after the end of his presidency, Roosevelt left New York for a safari in east and central Africa. Roosevelt's party landed in Mombasa, British East Africa (now Kenya), traveled to the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) before following the Nile to Khartoum in modern Sudan. Financed by Andrew Carnegie and by his own proposed writings, Roosevelt's party hunted for specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The group, led by the legendary hunter-tracker R. J. Cunninghame, included scientists from the Smithsonian and was joined from time to time by Frederick Selous, the famous big game hunter and explorer. Among other items, Roosevelt brought with him four tons of salt for preserving animal hides, a lucky rabbit's foot given to him by boxer John L. Sullivan, a Holland and Holland double rifle in .500/450 donated by a group of 56 admiring Britons, a Winchester 1895 rifle in .405 Winchester, an Army (M1903) Springfield in .30-06 caliber stocked and sighted for him, a Fox No. 12 shotgun, and the famous Pigskin Library, a collection of classics bound in pig leather and transported in a single reinforced trunk.

 
Roosevelt and his companions killed or trapped approximately 11,400 animals, from insects and moles to hippopotamuses and elephants. These included 512 big game animals, including six rare white rhinos. The expedition consumed 262 of the animals. Tons of salted animals and their skins were shipped to Washington; the quantity was so large that it took years to mount them all, and the Smithsonian shared many duplicate animals with other museums. Regarding the large number of animals taken, Roosevelt said, "I can be condemned only if the existence of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and all similar zoological institutions are to be condemned."
 
Although the safari was ostensibly conducted in the name of science, it was as much a political and social event as it was a hunting excursion; Roosevelt interacted with renowned professional hunters and land-owning families, and met many native peoples and local leaders. Roosevelt became a Life Member of the National Rifle Association, while President, in 1907 after paying a $25 fee. He later wrote a detailed account in the book African Game Trails, where he describes the excitement of the chase, the people he met, and the flora and fauna he collected in the name of science.

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Book formats and corresponding sizes  
Name Abbreviations Leaves Pages Approximate cover size (width × height)  
inches cm  
folio 2º or fo 2 4 12 × 19 30.5 × 48  
quarto 4º or 4to 4 8 9½ × 12 24 × 30.5  
octavo 8º or 8vo 8 16 6 × 9 15 × 23  
duodecimo or twelvemo 12º or 12mo 12 24 5 × 7⅜ 12.5 × 19  
sextodecimo or sixteenmo 16º or 16mo 16 32 4 × 6¾ 10 × 17  
octodecimo or eighteenmo 18º or 18mo 18 36 4 × 6½ 10 × 16.5  
trigesimo-secundo or thirty-twomo 32º or 32mo 32 64 3½ × 5½ 9 × 14  
quadragesimo-octavo or forty-eightmo 48º or 48mo 48 96 2½ × 4 6.5 × 10  
sexagesimo-quarto or sixty-fourmo 64º or 64mo 64 128 2 × 3 5 × 7.5  
 

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