The First Safari tells how, for a quarter of a century, Ian Glenn searched for Francois Levaillant's notebooks and the fate of his collection and tried to solve puzzles and mysteries of Levaillant's life and times. Levaillant was the first and greatest South African birder, noted ornithologist, explorer, naturalist, zoological collector and anthropologist of the Cape. He collected thousands of specimens of birds and subsequently published the six-volume Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux d'Afrique between 1799 and 1808. His contribution to ornithology in Africa was immeasurable, and some of his specimens still exist in museums in Europe. Through his travels, he also shaped a range of media genres: the hunting narrative; the safari; the anthropological field record; the illustrated and mapped first-person account of travel we associate with National Geographic stories; the colonial adventure story with a well-armed hero; the erotic exotic; the investigative report on colonial brutality.

A history of the African safari from its first major expedition in 1836 to the adventures of modern guides shares the experiences of such individuals as Beryl Markham, Teddy Roosevelt, and Ernest Hemingway, in an account that evaluates the ethical dilemma faced by hunter-conservationists as well as the African bush's role in weapons development, transportation, and art. Reprint.

Richard Clark, the narrator of this sharp and sometimes madcap novel is nineteen--a drug-addicted, foul-mouthed, sex-crazed young man in Africa on a safari with his parents. Obviously, this is a mistake. As Richard smolders with resentment, he documents the trip in a series of journal entries that are funny, sad, and piercingly insightful. Juxtaposed with the hostile environment, the tense situation becomes explosive: with raw energy and acuity, somewhere between Hunter S. Thompson and David Sedaris, we see Mom going insane, Dad drinking compulsively, and Richard busy getting high on smuggled drugs. Anything can happen, and it does, in this family travelogue for the twenty-first century.

Safari Nation opens new lines of inquiry in the study of national parks in Africa and the rest of the world. The Kruger National Park is South Africa’s most iconic nature reserve, renowned for its rich flora and fauna. According to author Jacob Dlamini, there is another side to the park, a social history neglected by scholars and popular writers alike in which blacks (meaning Africans, Coloureds, and Indians) occupy center stage. Safari Nation details the ways in which black people devoted energies to conservation and to the park over the course of the twentieth century—engagement that transcends the stock (black) figure of the laborer and the poacher. By exploring the complex and dynamic ways in which blacks of varying class, racial, religious, and social backgrounds related to the Kruger National Park, and with the help of previously unseen archival photographs, Dlamini’s narrative also sheds new light on how and why Africa’s national parks—often derided by scholars as colonial impositions—survived the end of white rule on the continent. Relying on oral histories, photographs, and archival research, Safari Nation engages both with African historiography and with ongoing debates about the “land question,” democracy, and citizenship in South Africa.

Told in the sassy voice of twelve-year-old Carey Monroe, experience an African safari as you learn about life in Kenya and the culture of the Maasi people.

A hilarious, deftly written debut novel about a woman whose wanderlust is about to show her that sometimes you don’t have to travel very far to become the person you want to be… There are many reasons women shouldn’t travel alone. But as foul-mouthed, sweet-toothed Kika Shores knows, there are many more reasons why they should. After all, most women want a lot more out of life than just having fun. Kika, for one, wants to experience the world. But ever since she returned from her yearlong backpacking tour, she’s been steeped in misery, battling rush hour with all the other suits. Getting back on the road is all she wants. So when she’s offered a nanny job in London – the land of Cadbury Cream Eggs – she’s happy at the prospect of going back overseas and getting paid for it. But as she’s about to discover, the most exhilarating adventures can happen when you stay in one place… Wise, witty, and hilarious, Girls Who Travel is an unforgettable novel about the highs and lows of getting what you want—and how it’s the things you least expect that can change your life.