I have here for sale two books entitled IN DARKEST AFRICA or the Quest, Rescue and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria by Henry M Stanley, Vols I and II. A first edition set published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1890.

First edition of Stanley's classic work. Octavo, 2 volumes, bound in the original cloth, gilt titles to the spine. Two steel-engraved portrait frontispieces, three folding maps, with One Hundred and Fifty illustrations. In very good condition, previous owner's writing to front pastedown. Stanley and Emin entered Bagamoyo on their donkeys, some way ahead of their caravan, on 4 December, 1889. It was sensational news. Emin was safe, although the expedition to relieve him had cost the lives of at least 700 people. With the good journalist's facility for rapid reporting, Stanley began his account of the rescue at the Hotel Victoria, Cairo, on 25 January 1890, working on it continuously for fifty days at the rate of 20 printed pages per day. The first portion of the manuscript was delivered to the printer's on 12 March and the last proof sheet returned for printing by Clowes on 3 June. 

Dark green hardboards with gilt lettering to the spines. There are 38 plates, 4 maps (the Route Map of Emin Relief Expedition and the Map of the same thing from the River Congo to the Victoria Nyanza). There are many other in-text b/w illustrations. Pages generally clean but one or two are foxed. Condition: very good. Vol I - xiv, 547 pages, Vol II - ix, 540 pages. 23 x 16 cm.