African Game Trails
by Roosevelt, Theodore
- Used
- near fine
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine
- Seller
-
Portland, Oregon, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
Theodore Roosevelt declined to run for reelection as President of the United States in 1908. Partly as a vacation, partly to avoid the press as his friend Taft set up a new administration, (and partly for self-promotion), T.R. set out for Africa to hunt big game and collect specimens for a future exposition at the Smithsonian. Scribner's magazine underwrote the trip by paying $50,000 for twelve articles. It is these articles that eventually became African Game Trails.In April 1909, T.R. and his son Kermit arrived in Mombasa. With an entourage of 250 porters and guides, the Roosevelts spent a year snaking across British East Africa, into the Belgian Congo and back to the Nile, ending in Khartoum. This narrative is a straightforward chronicle of the trip, laced with tips on tracking and hunting African big game, and observations and opinions about Africa and its peoples, many of which are politically incorrect by today's standards. T.R. believed in the inferiority of most African peoples and recommended they be civilized by European rule.For the most part, however, African Game Trails is a book about big game hunting. Over the course of the year, the Roosevelts collected (i.e. shot) 1,100 specimens, including eleven elephants, twenty rhinoceroses, seventeen lions, twenty zebra, seven hippopotamuses, seven giraffes, and six buffalo. This was a different era, to be sure. In a way that makes the account all the more valuable. African Games Trails is well-written and rolls along easily, like a good, long, after-dinner story. It is also a striking record of early 20th-century African culture and natural history. It is great fun and highly recommended for the non-squeamish.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Burnside Rare Books, ABAA (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 140945473
- Title
- African Game Trails
- Author
- Roosevelt, Theodore
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- Signed Limited First Edition
- Publisher
- Charles Scribner's Sons
- Date Published
- 1910
- Note
- May be a multi-volume set and require additional postage.
Terms of Sale
Burnside Rare Books, ABAA
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Burnside Rare Books, ABAA
About Burnside Rare Books, ABAA
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Frequently asked questions
This Book’s Categories
- Autographs & Signed Books Signed Books
- Politics, Government and Law Law Enforcement Political Biography
- Countries & Cultures Africa
- Countries & Cultures North America United States Americana
- History
- Nature Natural History
- Travel & Exploration True Adventure
- Travel & Exploration Travel
- Sports & Games Hunting, Fishing & Shooting
- Biography & Essays Biography & Memoirs