An account of Theodore Roosevelt's 1909–10 African expedition.

After leaving the White House, Theodore Roosevelt embarked in 1909 on a lengthy African safari/collecting expedition for the Smithsonian that covered hundreds of miles, from Mombasa on the Indian Ocean to Khartoum and Egypt.

"This book is based primarily upon, and mainly consists of, matter contained in articles [published] ... in the Metropolitan magazine during the past fourteen months. It also contains or is based upon an article contributed to the Wheeler Syndicate, a paper submitted to the American Sociological Congress and one or two speeches and public statements. In addition there is much new matter."--Introductory note.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

While he is best known for being the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt is also remembered for his immense love of nature, animals, and game hunting. "African Game Trails" is Roosevelt's memoirs about a hunting trip to Africa that he took with his son Kermit in 1908. In the text, he vividly describes the country in exotic detail. In full detail, he depicts the enthusiastic thrill of the hunt as well as the beauty of the animals he tracked. He also portrays his interactions with other famous game hunters such as Major Boyd Cunningham and Frederick Selous, who is known as one of the last big game hunters in Africa. As a naturalist, Roosevelt was immensely interested in the native flora and fauna of East Africa. He included descriptions of fascinating plants and animals that are only found on the continent, introducing the natural landscape of Africa to readers who had never seen it. Roosevelt was a firm believer in portraying wildlife as naturally as possible; he even wrote a number of essays denouncing anthropomorphism in literature. He wanted his works to be as realistic and life-like as possible, so that "African Game Trails" is a true representation of the beauty and majesty that Roosevelt saw during his trip to East Africa. His adventures in the untamed jungles of the continent are as thrilling now as they were when the book was first published in the early twentieth century.

Brian Herne's White Hunters: The Golden Age of African Safaris is the story of seventy years of African adventure, danger, and romance. East Africa affects our imagination like few other places: the sight of a charging rhino goes directly to the heart; the limitless landscape of bony highlands, desert, and mountain is, as Isak Dinesen wrote, of "unequalled nobility." White Hunters re-creates the legendary big-game safaris led by Selous and Bell and the daring ventures of early hunters into unexplored territories, and brings to life such romantic figures as Cape-to-Cairo Grogan, who walked 4,000 miles for the love of a woman, and Dinesen's dashing lover, Denys Finch. Witnesses to the richest wildlife spectacle on the earth, these hunters were the first conservationists. Hard-drinking, infatuated with risk, and careless in love, they inspired Hemingway's stories and movies with Clark Gable and Gregory Peck.

Excerpt from African Game Trails: An Account of the African Wanderings of an American Hunter-Naturalist "I speak of Africa and golden joys"; the joy of wandering through lonely lands; the joy of hunting the mighty and terrible lords of the wilderness, the cunning, the wary, and the grim. In these greatest of the world's great hunting-grounds there are mountain peaks whose snows are dazzling under the equatorial sun; swamps where the slime oozes and bubbles and festers in the steaming heat; lakes like seas; skies that burn above deserts where the iron desolation is shrouded from view by the wavering mockery of the mirage; vast grassy plains where palms and thorn-trees fringe the dwindling streams; mighty rivers rushing out of the heart of the continent through the sadness of endless marshes; forests of gorgeous beauty, where death broods in the dark and silent depths. There are regions as healthy as the northland; and other regions, radiant with bright-hued flowers, birds and butterflies, odorous with sweet and heavy scents, but, treacherous in their beauty, and sinister to human life. On the land and in the water there are dread brutes that feed on the flesh of man; and among the lower things, that crawl, and fly, and sting, and bite, he finds swarming foes far more evil and deadly than any beast or reptile; foes that kill his crops and his cattle, foes before which he himself perishes in his hundreds of thousands. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.