Over Land and Sea: Memoir of an Austrian Rear Admiral's Life in Europe and Africa, 1857-1909

An explorer of East Africa in the era of Livingstone and Stanley, Hohnel mapped vast areas of modern-day Kenya and Tanzania. While in Africa, he was seriously injured by a charging rhinoceros and was transported back to Europe, where he recovered. He then rejoined the Austro-Hungarian Navy and rose steadily in rank until his retirement in 1909. During this time, Hohnel was given the prestigious appointment of aide-de-camp to the aged Emperor Franz Josef, whom he served (and critically observed) at court between 1899 and 1903.
During the 1920s, with the encouragement of his friend William Astor Chanler, Hohnel produced a handwritten, English-language autobiography. This manuscript had been in the possession of the Chanler family for several decades, but was only recently discovered. It appears in print for the first time in this volume. The turbulent years preceding the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918 are revived through Hohnel's vibrant memoir.

Ronald E. Coons is director of graduate studies in the University of Connecticut's Department of History. He is the author of Steamships, Statesmen and Bureaucrats: Austrian Policy Towards the Steam Navigation Company of the Austrian Lloyd, 1836-1848. Pascal James Imperato is Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventative Medicine and Community Health at the SUNY Health Science Center in Brooklyn. Dr. Imperato has lived in East Africa and is the author of 18 books including Buffoons, Queens and Wooden Horsemen: The Dyo and Gouan Societies of the Bambara of Mali. J. Winthrop Aldrich holds an A.B. degree cum laude from Harvard University where he majored in European History. A career public servant, he presently serves as New York State's Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation. He was the sponsoring editor of The Astor Orphans: A Pride of Lions.