A JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA, or, Life and Landscapes from Egypt to the Negro Kingdoms of the White Nile

New York: G.P. Putnam & Co., 1854. Early Printing, probably the first, with added slug to the title-page. With and engraved frontispiece and textual illustrations by the author throughout. A large folding map is included at the rear of the volume. 8vo, publisher's original red cloth, decorated and lettered in gilt on the spine and with gilt pictorial vignette to the upper cover. 522 pp. An honest copy, the hinges strong and tight, the text-block mellowed as expected, some old library markings internally, the map with a closed tear. Early printing in issuance year of Taylor's famous travelogue of Central Africa. Bayard Taylor was an American poet, literary critic, translator, travel author, and diplomat. As a poet, he was very popular, with a crowd of more than 4,000 attending a poetry reading once, which was a record that stood for 85 years. His travelogues were popular in both the United States and Great Britain. He served in diplomatic posts in Russia and Prussia.
In 1851 he traveled to Egypt, where he followed the Nile River as far as 12° 30' N. He also traveled in Palestine and Mediterranean countries, writing poetry based on his experiences. Toward the end of 1852, he sailed from England to Calcutta, and then to China, where he joined the expedition of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry to Japan. The results of these journeys were published as A Journey to Central Africa; or, Life and Landscapes from Egypt to the Negro Kingdoms of the White Nile (1854); The Lands of the Saracen; or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily and Spain (1854); and A Visit to India, China and Japan in the Year 1853 (1855).
He returned to the U.S. on December 20, 1853, and undertook a successful public lecturer tour that extended from Maine to Wisconsin. After two years, he went to northern Europe to study Swedish life, language and literature. The trip inspired his long narrative poem Lars. His series of articles Swedish Letters to the Tribune were republished as Northern Travel: Summer and Winter Pictures (1857).