Lieut. Col. J. H. Patterson, D.S.O.
London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin’s Street, 1907
First Edition, First Impression
A true first impression of one of the most celebrated and enduring works of African big-game literature.
In 1898, during construction of the Uganda Railway in British East Africa, two large male lions began attacking railway workers near the Tsavo River in present-day Kenya.
Over several months, the lions repeatedly entered camps at night, dragging men from tents and huts, halting construction and spreading fear among the workforce. Estimates of the dead vary - Patterson claimed 135 victims, though modern research suggests a lower number.
Lieut.-Col. J. H. Patterson, the engineer overseeing the bridge works, eventually hunted and shot both lions after a prolonged and dangerous campaign.
His 1907 book recounts the ordeal, the hunt, and other East African adventures, blending frontier engineering, big-game hunting, and imperial travel narrative into one of the most famous lion stories ever published. The present copy retains its original blue cloth binding with the striking gilt lion’s head device to the upper cover - one of the most recognisable pictorial designs of Edwardian sporting literature.
Octavo, 22cm x 14cm. xx, 338pp. Frontispiece, folding map, and numerous black and white illustrations in the text. Original publisher’s deep blue cloth, gilt lettering to spine, gilt lion head device to upper board. Top edge gilt. The first printing was comparatively small, generally estimated at approximately 1,250 copies. Many copies were heavily read, circulated, or later rebound, and examples in original cloth are now decidedly scarce.
Provenance
Armorial bookplate of Ricardo Simpson to the front pastedown.
Condition
Binding remains firm and sound. Minor rubbing and small chips to corners and extremities. Light foxing, largely confined to the endpapers. Cloth bright, gilt clear and strong. Internally clean and complete, with map and illustrations present.
