REMINISCENCES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF W. D. M. "KARAMOJO" BELL.

2018 1st trade edition. Large 8vo (160 x 234mm). Pp391. B/w photographs, maps, line illustrations, map end-papers. Blue cloth, spine titled in gilt.

"This book is not a rehash of Karamojo Safari, Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter, or Incidents from an Elephant Hunter's Diary. This is Bell's life story, and it includes about 60 percent more material than can be found in Bell of Africa. The chapters in this book are presented in chronological order, in Bell's own words. Now, for the first time, it will be possible for Bell aficionados to place the hunting stories from the first three books listed above into the framework of Bell's life. By looking at some of the chapters, it is easy to follow the evolution of Bell the hunter and Bell the man ... While we did our best to eliminate redundancies whenever we could in editing his autobiographical notes, we decided that it was necessary to keep some of them in order to preserve continuity and to respect the importance of maintaining chronological order in the telling of Bell's life's story. For example the chapter entitled "Karamojo" (1902 to 1907) is one. Using Bell's own words, we did a synopsis of Bell's time there; we did not rehash what can be found elsewhere ... and we found (an unpublished) gem of a story that occurred at the very end of Bell's penultimate journey into Karamoja, which we included at the end of the chapter." Numerous footnotes give a commentary on the text. The footnotes allow Bell's own accounts to hang together and be understood without interrupting or interfering with the accounts themselves. The book's contents are sorted into three parts, Part I is Bell's life story, Part II has original stories by Bell that have not been published elsewhere, and Part III contains some of Bell's letters. Chapters include: Part I: Early misadventures; I take a sailing ship to the other side of the world; New Zealand in the 1890s; Swagging and other adventures; My escape from Germany; One foot in Africa, 1897; another foor in the Yukon; Back to Africa and the Boer War; Into the unknown; Karamojo; Abyssinia under Menelik; The Lado Enclave; Rubber and whales, an interlude; Liberia, where the black man rules; French Equatorial Africa; I join the Royal Flying Corps; The war years; Another go at Africa; Home in the Highlands; Postscript; The obituary of Capt. W.D.M. Bell by Major Kinloch. Part II: Walter Bell's Handbook on African Big Game; The repulsive saurian; The Nandi epic; The Somali virgin; A sojourn among practicing Christians; Among friends; A whaling project; Hunting and the Waboni; Slaving and raiding in Karamojo; The film party; Miscellaneous misadventures and reminiscences. Part III: Letters; Legal documents, copies of archives and newspaper clippings. "Walter Bell's "life's story is testament to his bold, courageous, ruggedly individualistic, and persistent nature. Once you've read his exciting memoirs, we are confident that you will agree." An exceedingly good book, probably the best that could be written on this subject.