[Rarebooks] FS: Henry Stanley Letter Commenting on Whether Monkeys Could Speak

[Charles Agvent]

On this day in 1871, journalist Henry Morton Stanley began his famous 
search through Africa for the missing British explorer Dr. David 
Livingstone.

STANLEY, Sir Henry Morton. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS). A fine 3-1/2 
page AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED by the famous explorer of the African 
continent. Written on 4-1/4" x 7" stationery imprinted "Cadoxton Lodge, 
Neath, South Wales, the addressee's name indecipherable. Stanley 
apologizes for the delay in responding--"a busy man's greatest trouble 
is the duty imposed on him by letters"--and thanks the recipient for his 
"good opinion of my book" and his "sympathy in my loss of a faithful 
friend." Stanley then responds to comments about Prof. Garner's 
experiments with monkeys and speech and the resulting newspaper reports: 
"The clipping you sent to me leaves the suspicion that it is one of 
these elaborate & solemn jokes which Americans look to make upon all 
subjects. Though the Professor's experiments may result in nothing yet 
the industry & zeal he displays in attempting to ascertain whether 
anything of value can be found by him deserve commendation.... There 
would be nothing remarkable nevertheless in the fact that certain 
chimpanzee or gorilla vocal emissions resemble Maori or even English 
words, let alone Latin or Greek." R. L. Garner's book, THE SPEECH OF 
MONKEYS, was published in 1892. A letter with outstanding Africa-related 
content by Stanley, and as such very scarce. Stanley's two best known 
books are HOW I FOUND LIVINGSTONE(1872) and IN DARKEST AFRICA (1890). 
Minor tears at fold, light edgewear and mount traces. Near Fine. 
(#011020)        $2,000.00

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