Stanley: The Making of an African Explorer

Celebrated explorer Henry M. Stanley, famous for capping off an expedition through central Africa with a greeting to Dr. Livingstone, led a life of bravery, dangerous risk, and fierce determination. Frank McLynn shows in his biography that Stanley's journeys along the length of the Congo River and around Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria revealed a disregard for life and a masochistic side. McLynn traces the roots of both the bravado and the savage behavior, beginning with the explorer's Dickensian childhood in a Welsh workhouse and culminating in his clashes with the Royal Geographic Society and the American newspaper magnate who financed Stanley's visit to Livingstone.