Stanley

Starred review from September 15, 2007
The great European colonial empires are long gone, and imperialist is usually used as a pejorative term. So it is perhaps to be expected that recent biographies of Henry Morton Stanley have emphasized unsavory aspects of his career and personality, including his supposed racism, the brutal treatment of Africans on his expeditions, and even his difficult relations with women. But Jeal, who previously wrote a biography of the great explorer David Livingstone, has made an admirable effort to balance the scales. Jeal utilizes a conventional narrative style, beginning with Stanleys horrible childhood in Wales, where he was abandoned by his parents and forced to labor in a workhouse. After his emigration to the U.S. at 18, he served in both the Confederate and Union armies and then made his mark as a risk-taking journalist during the Plains Indian wars. Of course, the heart of this story is Stanleys career as an African explorer, launched by his famed search for Livingstone. As Jeal illustrates, Stanley was terribly scarred by his childhood traumas, was ambitious to a fault, had a casual relationship with the truth, and was often ruthless in driving subordinates on African expeditions. But, as an examination of his letters shows, he was quite capable of compassion, even tenderness for Africa and Africans, and his reputation for cruelty is unwarranted. Jeal has provided a fine, counterrevisionist look at a flawed but still admirable character.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)