American-born author, explorer, and special correspondent for the New York Herald (1841–1904). He entered the annals of popular quotation with his famous inquiry, ‘Dr. Livingstone, I presume?,’ upon finding David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary and fellow explorer who had become lost in the wilds of Zanzibar. ALS signed “Henry M. Stanley,” one 5 x 8 page on eye-catching Dark Continent letterhead which bears a small vignette of Africa, December 9, 1884. Letter to his friend L. C. Parkinson on the eve of Bismark’s Berlin Conference of 1884-85 to divide Africa among European colonial powers. In part: “I am off tomorrow for Berlin to finish up — or to be in at the struggle that is just going to begin. Therefore abundant thanks for your kindness & many regrets I cannot look forward to any factish date at a very early period.” In fine condition, with a couple light fingerprints and spots of soiling.
Organized by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the Berlin Conference regulated European colonization and trade in Africa and coincided with Germany's growth as an imperial power. European interest in Africa increased in the early 1880s as leaders became more aware of Africa's abundance of valuable resources including gold, spices, tea, opium, and slaves—information enhanced by Stanley's 1874–1877 charting of the Congo River Basin. Historians maintain that the Berlin Conference helped usher in a period of heightened colonial activity on the part of the European powers, but also eliminated most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance. RRAuction COA.
