The Land of the Midnight Sun

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Engraved frontispiece in each volume, numerous plates and text illustrations. Contemporary three-quarters calf and marbled boards, worn, marbled fore-edges; interior, with marbled endpapers, excellent. First American edition of a foundational work by the prominent nineteenth-century explorer Du Chaillu, who coined the title phrase. The author traveled extensively across Scandinavia between 1871 and 1878. His aim in writing more than a simple travel account “was to make a study of the physical characteristics of the country and to closely observe the manners and customs of its inhabitants.”

Du Chaillu (1835-1903) is a fascinating and disputed figure. Scholars debate over his place of birth, French or American citizenship, and even his potential African heritage. It has been suggested that his mother may have been a mulatto woman from Reunion, a problematic parentage for a member of the nineteenth-century scientific community. Whatever his origins, du Chaillu was an accomplished zoologist, anthropologist, adventurer, hunter, and author whose narratives captured his readers’ minds. His earlier travels to Central Africa resulted in a number of notable published accounts as well as his becoming known as the first white man to witness gorillas.