LEGENDS OF THE AFRICAN FRONTIER. By David Chandler. First edition limited to 500 copies, signed and numbered by the author.

2008 1st edition. Large 4to (223 x 286mm). Ppxii,419. B/w photographs and illustrations, map, bibliography. Green cloth, spine and upper board titled in gilt with black slihouette of Africa. Green cloth slipcase. First edition limited to 500 copies, signed and numbered by the author.

"The life and times of Africa's most unforgettable characters, 1800-1945." Biographical sketches of Africa's early adventurers, explorers, big-game hunters, and ivory poachers. Whether they were the worst scoundrels, thieves, and liars, or those who legitimately came to make the continent better by trying to abolish the slave trade, 1200 in all are listed-starting with Abbott, Doctor William Louis (1860-1936) and ending with Zwilling, Ernst (1904-1990). Read about the Pygmy Ota Benga, an intelligent man who was caught and traded like an animal, stuck on a ship, and placed in a cage in the New York Zoo. David Chandler says in his introduction "I've focused to a large extent on those who made their living "off their guns" - the ivory hunters, the hide hunters, and the many others who made their livelihood with a rifle." Each entry has a biographical sketch as well as the subject's hunting accomplishments and literary achievements. The inevitable controversies and contradictions in the historical record are dealt with, and all of the different versions and views are fully explored. Bibliophiles and book collectors will enjoy the attention paid to the memoirs and histories of those hunters who left a written record of their lives. Every effort has been made to track down the military service records of men like Commander David Blunt (elephant-control officer in Tanganyika) and Col. John H. Patterson (of Tsavo lion fame). Illustrated with period photos, this book has frozen in time a piece of African history and its most illustrious characters.