Beschreibung:

Autograph letter signed ("David Livingstone"), to the Editor of the Times , denouncing attempts by George Routledge and other unscrupulous publishers to cash in on his fame and declaring that only the volume to be published by John Murray will give a true account of his recent travels ("...an Advertisement signed ʻGeorge Routledge and Co Farringdon St.' which seems to be an unblushing attempt on the part of a publisher to get money by false pretences. It purports to be ʻLIVINGSTON'S' discoveries in central Africa with a map revised by himself.' Now as I am engaged in writing a narrative of my own travels and discoveries with the hope that the profits of the work may assist in the education of my children... it does seem hard to think of Messrs Routledge and Co. coming forward and by a barefaced public lie try to filtch the profits out of our hands..."); he goes on to explain that "I have all along felt extremely anxious to give a truthful account of the new region, and am now, though certainly no adept in book making, giving my entire time to a work to be published by Mr Murray of Albermarle St in which I hope the reader will have presented to him the very ideas which were formed in my own mind in passing through the country" and that he has revised no map but that "Mr Arrowsmith is engaged on one which will have my sanction"; ending with the tirade: "In Africa we are often troubled by hyaenas – low, dastardly, greedy hideous brutes – much given to cowardly filtching, when very troublesome at Kolobeng I used to bait a gun with a piece of meat at the end of our house and the fools shot themselves. Now if you will kindly publish this note in the ʻTimes' I am sure your paper will perform the service of the baited gun for every one will soon know that my travels are not published by Routledge & Co..."; marked at the head in pencil "Never sent", 6 pages, light dust-staining but overall in good and attractive condition, 4to , 57 Sloane Street, London, [?] 25 January no year [1857