# Is "How I Found Livingstone: Travels, Adventures, and Discoveries in Central Africa" by Henry M. Stanley a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of How I Found Livingstone: Travels, Adventures, and Discoveries in Central Africa by Henry M. Stanley (Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, 1872) is identified by: The true first edition collates [7], viii-xxiii, [2], 2-736 pages plus 8 pages of publisher's catalogue dated October 1872, octavo, bound in brown pictorial cloth with beveled edges, titles, illustrations, and frames stamped in gilt and black on the front cover and spine. The London edition, published by Sampson Low soon after Stanley reached England in the summer of 1872, is treated as the first edition, preceding the New York edition from Scribner, Armstrong & Co.; the American edition substitutes a wood-engraved frontispiece of Stanley and his servant Kalulu for the mounted albumen photograph used in the London printing.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The true first edition collates [7], viii-xxiii, [2], 2-736 pages plus 8 pages of publisher's catalogue dated October 1872, octavo, bound in brown pictorial cloth with beveled edges, titles, illustrations, and frames stamped in gilt and black on the front cover and spine
- It carries a frontispiece portrait of Stanley reproduced as a mounted albumen photograph pasted inside a printed line border with a facsimile signature below, along with twenty-eight full-page wood-engraved plates, twenty-five in-text wood engravings, and six maps, three of them folding
- A later state exists with a title-page slug reading 'second edition,' which booksellers describe as apparently a continued issuance of the same printing rather than a reset text
- Publisher imprint reads Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Henry M. Stanley |
| Publisher | Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle |
| Year | 1872 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | The true first edition collates [7], viii-xxiii, [2], 2-736 pages plus 8 pages of publisher's catalogue dated October 1872, octavo, bound… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
The true first edition collates [7], viii-xxiii, [2], 2-736 pages plus 8 pages of publisher's catalogue dated October 1872, octavo, bound in brown pictorial cloth with beveled edges, titles, illustrations, and frames stamped in gilt and black on the front cover and spine. It carries a frontispiece portrait of Stanley reproduced as a mounted albumen photograph pasted inside a printed line border with a facsimile signature below, along with twenty-eight full-page wood-engraved plates, twenty-five in-text wood engravings, and six maps, three of them folding. A later state exists with a title-page slug reading 'second edition,' which booksellers describe as apparently a continued issuance of the same printing rather than a reset text.

## Is this the true first?
The London edition, published by Sampson Low soon after Stanley reached England in the summer of 1872, is treated as the first edition, preceding the New York edition from Scribner, Armstrong & Co.; the American edition substitutes a wood-engraved frontispiece of Stanley and his servant Kalulu for the mounted albumen photograph used in the London printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *How I Found Livingstone: Travels, Adventures, and Discoveries in Central Africa* by Henry M. Stanley a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/how-i-found-livingstone-travels-adventures-and-discoveries-i
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.