Read by Sibella Denton, J. M. Smallheer, Tim Makarios, BethAnne, Lizzie Driver, Anna Simon, Jennie Hughes, Laura Caldwell, James Gladwin, kyleti · 43 chapters · 16 h 57
In 1869 the owner of the New York Herald gave a young reporter an extraordinary order: find David Livingstone. The great Scottish missionary and explorer had disappeared into the heart of Africa, and the world wanted to know whether he was alive. Henry Morton Stanley, born in Wales and fresh from reporting wars, set out from Zanzibar with porters, supplies and a determination to succeed. His account of the expedition is full of danger and discovery: illness, desertions, quarrels, rivers and forests, and the long march that ends at last with a meeting on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Ten LibriVox volunteers voice the forty-three chapters of this adventure classic, with more than seventeen hours of listening. A gripping tale told by the man who lived it, and a revealing record of the attitudes of its time.
Introduction
Sir Henry Morton Stanley was born in Wales in 1841 and died in 1904. He emigrated to the United States at the age of eighteen, and he became an overseas correspondent for the New York Herald. He is famously quoted for saying “Dr Livingstone, I presume?” on finding the missionary and explorer in Africa, a line that has long since passed into legend.
How I Found Livingstone was published in 1872. In 1869 Stanley was told by James Gordon Bennett, the owner of the Herald, to go and find Livingstone, who had not been heard from for some years. The book describes the journey that followed: the preparations at Zanzibar, the march inland, the obstacles of climate, disease and politics, and the eventual meeting. It is a lively narrative, written by a journalist with an eye for colour and drama, and it was an immediate success.
It must also be read with care. Stanley’s account was written from a European perspective, and his descriptions of African peoples and of his own conduct towards them reflect the prejudices of the nineteenth century. Later events in his career, especially his work in the Congo, have been the subject of serious criticism, and modern historians approach him with caution. For that reason the book is best understood as both an adventure story and a historical document.
The recording has forty-three chapters and runs for around seventeen hours, shared among ten LibriVox volunteers. It will interest readers of exploration narratives, African history and the history of journalism.
Public domain
Henry Morton Stanley died in 1904: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
