COOMASSIE AND MAGDALA: The Story of Two British Campaigns in Africa by Stanley Henry M - 1874

London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, & Searle, 1874. First Edition. Very Scarce. This copy with the bookplate of the Earl of Cromer, Evelyn Baring, long-time British Consul-General in Egypt with his engraved bookplate by Henry Badeley. With numerous illustrations from drawings by Melton Prior (special artist in Ashantee of the illustrated London news) and other artists, and two folding maps. 8vo, in a handsome binding of three-quarter crushed light-brown morocco over marbled boards, the spine with raised bands blind ruled, gilt lettered in two compartments and at the tail, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. xiv, 510 pp. A very handsome copy with provenance associated with the British in Africa, the binding in excellent state with just a touch of rubbing to the paper. Internally solid and very clean, a touch of edge-wear to one of the folding maps and very minor signs of use. VERY SCARCE FIRST EDITION, ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT TO SECURE IN THE STANLEY OEUVRE. This copy is uncommonly well preserved in a handsome binding of excellent lineage.
COOMASSIE AND MAGDALA is the story of the great British campaigns in East and West Africa. “Coomassie was a town insulated by a deadly swamp. A thick jungly forest - so dense that the sun seldom pierced the foliage; so sickly that the strongest fell victims to the malaria it cherished - surrounded it to a depth of 140 miles seaward, many hundred miles east, as many more west, and 100 miles north. Through this forest and swamp, unrelieved by a single novelty or a single pretty landscape, the British army had to march...” Henry Stanley, from his preface.