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National Geographic
July 2002
On Sale: July 15, 2002
320 pages
ISBN: 0792266382
EAN: 9780792266389
Paperback (reprint)
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Non-Fiction Memoir
Until 1893, Mary Kingsley led a secluded life in Victorian
England. But at age 30, defying every convention of
womanhood of the time, she left England for West Africa to
collect botanical specimens for a book left unfinished by
her father at his death. Traveling through western and
equatorial Africa and becoming the first European to enter
some parts of Gabon, Kingsley’s story—as an explorer and as
a woman—would become an enduring tale of adventure, ranking
18th on Adventure magazine’s list of the top 100 adventure
books. Originally published in 1895, and never out of print,
Travels in West Africa is Kingsley’s account of her
dauntless travels, unaccompanied but for African guides,
into Africa’s most dangerous jungles, where the tribes were
reputed to be ferocious and cannibalistic. Along the way,
she fought off crocodiles with a paddle, hit a leopard over
the head with a pot, fell into an animal trap lined with
sharpened sticks, and waded through swamps in chin-deep
water. Despite her travails, Kingsley succeeded remarkably
in this unknown place, establishing warm relationships with
the natives and collecting more than 400 samples of plants
and insects, some of which are now extinct. Featuring an introduction that expertly sets Kingsley’s
adventure against the history of European exploration of
Africa, Travels in West Africa is a unique and extraordinary
contribution—by an equally unique and extraordinary woman—to
the best of adventure writing.
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