Dark Safari: The Life Behind the Legend of Henry Morton Stanley

Just how fleeting fame can be is handily revealed in John Bierman's autobiography of one of history's first media superstars: John Rowlands AKA Henry Morton Stanley. Today, if he's thought of at all, Stanley is chiefly remembered as the author of comically droll inquiry, "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?" In "Dark Safari: The Life Behind the Legend of Henry Morton Stanley," we're introduced to an almost stereotypical celebrity. A man who substitutes the spotlight for the affection and love he never received as a child. In this regard you could replace Stanley's name with that of almost any current pop star. Stanley rose from grinding poverty, abandoned by his mother and then, literally and serially, by every other member of his family. From these unpromising roots, Stanley became the quintessential "self-made-man" reaching the apex of his fame by being knighted by Queen Victoria. In between these two extremes we are treated to a well researched and lively narrative that illuminates as much about the Victorian era as it does Stanley's life. The story is told chronologically, naturally following Stanley's personal evolution. Seeking to escape the destitution of his native Wales, Stanley wangles working passage on a ship to America where he finds opportunity to match his ambitions. Though having no strong feelings about slavery one way or the other, he enlisted and fought as a Confederate infantryman during the Civil War. He is injured early on and captured. Taking advantage of a amnesty program for those who would swear allegiance to the Union, he joins the Federal navy, survives the war, and following the popular tide, becomes a reporter during the western expansion. It's in the wilds of the west that Stanley comes into his own displaying his legendary toughness and freedom of thought to buck authority (while craving its approval.) Despite the prejudices of the day, Stanley sympathizes with the plight of Native Americans, writing: "We know that if the redman could have been enslaved he would have been before this... [A]ll evidence which can be furnished shows plainly that the Indian has ever been the wronged party..." Stanley considered his experience during the Indian Wars as "a kind of apprenticeship to the longer and more difficult one I was to continue into Unknown Africa." For all of Stanley's Victorian ideals, he wrote with a personal angle on the events he covered. As Biernan writes, "[Stanley] had an eye for human interest, then a novel journalistic concept, writing not just about the generals and politicians on both sides of the conflict but about the ordinary soldiers and citizens who were caught up in it." Stanley lived a rollicking life, which he took pains to document, albeit in an idealistic self-serving way. In reading this fascinating biography you'll learn that the rescue of Livingstone was only a small part of Stanley's life. Biernan's meticulous research separates much fact from Stanley's intentional fiction