Across the Dark Continent. Bicycle Diaries from Africa 1931-1936. Collected, edited and prefaced by Lukasz Wierzbicki and translated from the Polish by Ida Naruszewicz-Rodger. by KAZIMIERZ NOWAK - 2017

Sorus, Poznan, 2017. Book. Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. The first English-language edition. 8vo. 392pp. Original publisher's glossy boards. Illustrated with maps, and with photographs by the author. A fine copy. No dust wrapper called for. Nowak's diaries covering his 40,000km solo bicycle tour of Africa from Libya to Cape Agulhas, South Africa and back to Algeria (the author died from pneumonia a year after his tour was complete, the illness a result of emaciation from travel, malaria, and leg surgery). His photographs of the trip were published in Poland 1962 but his full diary was not issued until 2000 with this English-language finally edition appearing 17 years later. Uncommon. "An utterly exceptional book. Its content and the personality of the writer account for its compelling nature. As such, it should command greater attention and wider recognition . I ardently hope that it will take place among the classics of Polish reportage" - Ryszard Kapuściński..