72. Stanley (Sir Henry Morton, explorer, author, and journalist, 1841-1904) Autograph Letter signed to Charles Ollivant, 3½pp., 8vo, 8, Duchess Street, London, 22nd August 1872, refuting a report in the Rhyl Journal that Stanley was not an American but a Welshman of the name of Thomas Rowlands, “I care not what any body writes about me nor do I intend to notice them. If English and Welsh folks are so gullible as to believe all the ‘rot’ they read about me, I cannot help it… . My name is neither Thomas, Rowlands, Smith, Jones, nor Robinson, but plain Henry M. Stanley. At 16 I was in Missouri, at 17 in Arkansas, at 18 in New Orleans, at 19 in Europe travelling, at 20 in the war…”, folds; and a newspaper clipping of the letter from Stanley and a covering letter from Ollivant.
est. £400 – £600
Stanley was baptized as John Rowlands, the illegitimate son of John Rowlands, a farmer and Elizabeth Parry. Rejected by both his parents Stanley was raised by his grandfather and after his death was boarded in a neighbouring cottage and subsequently in a workhouse in St. Asaph.
“Throughout his life, Stanley was in every way a masterful story-teller, so traumatic were the memories of his youth that he did everything he could to obscure the truth from public view, fabricating for himself a new identity in the process.” (DNB) This letter was written by Stanley twenty one days after his arrival in London from his expedition to find Livingstone.