April 2012 Auction Ends Monday, April 30th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/30/2012
African explorer Mary Henrietta Kingsley autograph letter signed ''M H Kingsley''. She dates it 19 May 1899, just a few years after the publication of her hotly debated books on the time spent with the polygamous Fang people of Africa. Kingsley's letter on Kensington, London stationery reads in part: ''Dear Doctor Schmann / You must think me a most ungrateful person not to have answered your kind letter sooner...wanting to say how much obliged to you I feel for your mission in my favor a triumph...to make people...think about it a more reasonable way...It would give me great pleasure if your Mrs. Schmann could come...I think it would be better for her to bring the baby, for then she will have no need to worry about it and we can have a quiet chat - will you let me know please if she can spare an afternoon...'' During this year, the last of her life, she published her final book and went back to Africa as a journalist and nurse during the Boer War. Typhoid fever killed her at age 38 in June of 1900. 2pp. on card-style black-trimmed stationery measures 4.5'' x 7''. Light toning and creasing, else near fine.
African Explorer Mary Henriette Kingsley Autograph Letter Signed -- "...to make people...think about it a more reasonable way...'' -- 1899
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