Mary Henrietta Kingsley--traveler, writer, and political activist--discovered no new territory, but she brought West African culture and politics to the attention of late-nineteenth-century British readers. John Flint credits her with having "revolutionize[d] the attitude toward Africa of British officials and the informed public." Her paradoxical, ultimately tragic personality and her entertaining yet scholarly travel books and articles have fascinated several generations of readers.

Mary was the first child of George Kingsley and Mary Bailey, Kingsley's housekeeper until their marriage four days before Mary Kingsley was born. Her father, a member of the well-known literary family that included the writers Charles and Henry Kingsley, trained as a doctor but spent most of his life traveling with wealthy patrons. A student of ethnography, he produced several books and articles, including the travel narrative South Sea Bubbles (1872), which he wrote with G. R. C. Herbert, the earl of Pembroke. Kingsley's...