Steve Kemper
From the Advance Reviews"Heinrich Barth belongs in the ranks of the greatest explorers of Africa. But unlike most of the others, he was less interested in imperial conquest and self-promotion than in the cultures, the peoples, the languages, and the ancient manuscripts that he found there. It's a pleasure to see a lively, readable biography of him in English at last." --Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost and To End All Wars
"Journalist Kemper tells the engrossing story of a German scholar’s five-and-a-half year, 10,000-mile journey across North and Central Africa in an age when that continent was as remote and exotic to Europeans as the North Pole." --Publishers Weekly "Kemper weaves information from Barth’s own publication about the journey as well as the notes of his fellow companions to paint an in-depth and vividly descriptive account of this remarkable expedition." --Booklist "A spirited reconstruction of the arduous five-year trek into Central Africa by Heinrich Barth (1821–1865), a German scientist exploring for England." --Kirkus "The Victorian-era reading public was enamored with the swashbuckling yarns of 'intrepid' white explorers, such as Richard Burton, among people they depicted as savages, and they by and large ignored Barth’s 'meticulous scholarship.' Yet today, Barth is decidedly more relevant for our post-colonial global world." --History Book Club |
Coming in June 2012
A true story that rivals the travels of Burton or Stanley for excitement, and surpasses them in scientific achievement.
In 1849 Heinrich Barth joined a small British expedition into unexplored regions of Islamic North and Central Africa. One by one his European companions died, but he carried on alone, eventually reaching the fabled city of gold, Timbuktu. His five-and-a-half year, 10,000-mile adventure ranks among the greatest journeys in the annals of exploration, and his discoveries are considered indispensable by modern scholars of Africa.
Yet because of shifting politics, European preconceptions about Africa, and his own thorny personality, Barth has been almost forgotten. The general public has never heard of him or his epic journey or his still-pertinent observations about Africa and Islam, and his monumental five-volume Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa is rare even in libraries. Though he made his journey for the British government, he has never had a biography in English. Barth and his achievements have fallen through a crack in history. This is a forgotten story of survival, adventure, and scientific discovery by a remarkable man. |
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