Items related to To the Heart of the Nile: Lady Florence Baker &...
Brings to vivid life the times & great achievements of a woman of unparalleled courage & spirit who helped redefine her world. Florence Szasz was a child when she witnessed the slaughter of her family during the Hungarian revolution. After the war, she was sold to be raised for a harem, in 1859. But one of the men in the auction room was moved by compassion for her. Sam Baker aided her escape. Ultimately they would marry & venture together into some of the most inaccessible regions on Earth. Together, they confronted disease, starvation, & hostile tribesman in an attempt to unravel a mysterious & magnificent enigma called Africa. Adorned with photos, maps, & illustrations, this book tells her story through journals, documents, & private papers.
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About the Author:
From Publishers Weekly:
Pat Shipman is the author of eight previous books, including The Man Who Found the Missing Link and Taking Wing, which won the Phi Beta Kappa Prize for science and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and named a New York Times Notable Book for 1998. Her numerous awards and honors include the 1996 Rhone-Poulenc Prize for The Wisdom of the Bones (written with Alan Walker). Her most recent book is To the Heart of the Nile: Lady Florence Baker and the Exploration of Central Africa. She is currently an adjunct professor of anthropology at Pennsylvania State University and lives in State College, Pennsylvania.
Shipman (The Man Who Found the Missing Link, etc.) recounts the courageous, adventurous life of Lady Florence Baker (18451916). Born in Transylvania and orphaned after the Hungarian revolution in 18481849, "Barbara" was taken to an Ottoman harem where her name was changed to "Florenz," and she lived "like an innocent flower blossoming in the sun." When she reached puberty, however, she was sold at slave auction to the pasha of Viddin in the Balkans and later abducted by the second-highest bidder, a wealthy middle-aged English adventurer named Samuel Baker, who renamed her "Florence." Independent, cultured and beautiful, Sam's 15-year-old acquisition possessed a fiery spirit and worldly curiosity that rivaled his own. So, in 1861, the unlikely couple set out for Africa to search for two English explorers who were on a quest to discover the Nile's source and to continue their soulful romance, free of the scrutiny Florence attracted for her "extreme youth and somewhat shadowy past." During their four years in Africa, the Bakers dealt with life-threatening illness, deception by tribal chiefs and mutiny-and witnessed some truly horrifying acts of human cruelty and degradation. But despite the hardships, including a return trip to attempt to dismantle the African slave trade, their love was unshaken. Combining journals, letters and photographs, Shipman's account shines with historical clarity and narrative fluency, although at times the invented dialogue between the couple rings a saccharine note. Overall, this portrait of bravery, altruism and stamina in the wilds of uncharted Africa is a reverent and careful tribute. 66 b&w illus.
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherDiane Pub Co
- Publication date2004
- ISBN 10 0756793440
- ISBN 13 9780756793449
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages428
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