ALONE ON THE BLUE NILE.

1973 1st UK edition. 8vo (140 x 222mm). Pp176. B/w photographs, maps. Blue boards, spine titled in white.

Fascinating account of the author's solo expedition attempting to descend the Blue Nile, beginning from Lake Tana in Ethiopia". All previous attemptsto descend this violent river had failed and some had ended in disaster". Steuben succeeded, using a papyrus canoe (destroyed) and then a small raft made of poles and a pair of oil drums. Lots of hunting for the pot, attacks by bands of natives and tropical diseases. Steuben lists all other attempts on the Blue Nile known to him, before and after his own expedition. First published in German, Ullstein Verlag 1963, Berlin and Frankfurt, under the title Zu den Goldquellen der Pharaonen: Allein auf demreissenden Nil (To the Pharaoh's sources of gold: alone on the raging Nile).