Books

First edition, first printing, rarely encountered in the dust jacket. Roosevelt's "zoogeographic reconnaissance" sought to discover if the Rio da Dúvida ("River of Doubt") flowed into the Amazon. The party successfully explored some of the most dangerous territories of Amazonia and the river was renamed Rio Roosevelt in his honour. The expedition (1913-14) was jointly led by Roosevelt and the Brazilian explorer Colonel Cândido Rondon (1865-1958), who had discovered the headwaters of Rio da Dúvida in 1909. Roosevelt undertook it after his defeat in the 1912 election, and it "appealed immediately to Roosevelt's spirit of adventure even if it was fraught with danger" (Howgego). After nearly two months and 1,000 miles, the expedition proved that the river did flow into the Amazon. The expedition was sponsored in part by the American Museum of Natural History, who were rewarded with a collection of 2,500 birds, 500 mammals, and several reptiles. Of the 19 members, only 16 returned: one drowned, another was murdered and buried at the scene, and the perpetrator was left behind in the jungle. Roosevelt suffered from a badly ulcerated leg and a heart condition, fever and dysentery afflicted the party, and his son Kermit was struck by a severe fever. The book gives a romanticized account and was popular, furthering Roosevelt's image as an adventurer and man-of-action. Large octavo. Original purple cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. With dust jacket. Photogravure frontispiece and 48 half-tone plates, 2 maps (one folding). A little sunned, light wear at foot of front cover, light foxing, some preliminary and index leaves unopened (a few opened a little roughly); jacket with slight loss at foot of spine (affecting imprint), slight creases where formerly inserted into the book (yet in a very clean state as a result), very light rubbing at extremities: a very good copy in very good jacket. Cole & Vail A41; Howgego IV R31.