ABSTRACT
David Livingstone’s Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa was a Victorian publishing phenomenon. 1 First published by London-based John Murray in 1857, the text had been consciously constructed to appeal to a wide range of audiences, within and beyond the scientific and geographical community. 2 This widespread appeal helped to ensure the work enjoyed commercial and critical success in Britain on a scale which was unprecedented for a travel narrative. Pre-publication subscription sales numbered 12,000 ensuring the initial print run sold out immediately while sales of the guinea edition quickly reached 30,000. A subsequent abridged ‘popular account’ aimed at non-specialist readers sold a further 10,000 copies. 3 However, Missionary Travels itself was only part of a broader network of print dedicated to constructing, communicating and debating the ‘discoveries’ which Livingstone outlined in his narrative. The official account of the explorer’s sixteen years in Africa gave rise to a remarkable number of articles, reviews, extracts and sketches in the British periodical and newspaper press, not to mention a number of alternative accounts which sought to benefit from the public’s fascination with Livingstone. 4
