GROGAN, Ewart S., & Arthur H. Sharp.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

From the Cape to Cairo: The First Traverse of Africa from South to North. First edition, presentation copy from the author, inscribed on the front free endpaper, "Ewart S. Grogan 1874-1961, the years that the locust Macleod has eaten!", with a delightful sketch of an elderly, long-tusked elephant. Grogan parodies a biblical quote (Joel 2:25) to refer to Iain Macleod (1913-1970), colonial secretary under Harold Macmillan, who was instrumental in advancing Kenyan independence.Sent down from Cambridge for rowdyism, Grogan (1874-1967), inspired by the writings of African explorer Frederic Selous, travelled to the continent in 1895 in response to Cecil Rhodes's call for volunteers to suppress the Matabeleland Rebellion. He returned in 1898 in the company of Harry Sharp, a disaffected solicitor, intending to cross the continent from south to north, in which he succeeded - having mapped several uncharted districts - and realising what Rhodes in his introductory letter calls "for centuries the ambition of every explorer" and establishing (as was Rhodes's dream) that the continent could in theory be crossed by railway.His handsome book, dedicated to Rhodes, was completed in four months and billed as "the greatest book on African travel and sport ever published"; it became an immediate bestseller. ODNB notes that it is "written with vivid power but [is] often strident or vulgar"; Czech considers it "an excellent work of sporting adventures and exploration".Provenance: Col. Raymond Clep

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