The Book Shed

Light shelf wear to the book; more to the tips, corners, and edges of the jacket which is spotted with several small chips and closed tears; gift inscription of 1941 else clean and unmarked. Mid 1930's, likely posthumous, reprint of the 1925 "new edition." Text only, no illustrations in this edition except for the vignette of an African couple on the dust jacket. The titles in the Houghton-Mifflin book list on the back panel were all published in 1935. Based on the author's letters, an important book about West Africa and the Bantu during the first years of the 20th century by a woman whose writing was well noticed in her day but is now little remembered. Jean Kenyon Mackenzie (1874-1936), a minister's daughter, attended Van Ness Seminary in San Francisco (1888-1890), the Sorbonne (1891-1892), and the University of California at Berkeley (1895-1896) before taking up missionary work on behalf of the Presbyterian Church in Africa. "Mackenzie served under the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. in West Africa from 1904 through 1913. She lived in German Kamerun (Cameroon) at Lolodorf and Efulan stations, except for a brief interlude (1908-1909) when she was given a special assignment in the French Gabon at Baraka station on the Ogowe River. She worked primarily with the rapidly growing mission schools and with African women, doing extensive itineration throughout the villages of the rainforest.In 1914 she returned to New York City because of illness. Thereafter she devoted full time to writing and made only one further visit to Kamerun, for 18 months between 1916 and 1918. A gifted writer, she published numerous articles, chiefly in the Atlantic Monthly and in Women’s Work, a journal of the women’s missionary societies of the Presbyterian Church. Author of seven books, she had unusual insight into the life and character of Africans, and few people of her generation did more to stir American Protestant interest in the missionary challenge of West Africa."--Norman A. Horner, “Mackenzie, Jean Kenyon,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. Books and other items ship promptly with a tracking number and (generally over $15.00) jacket protectors if applicable. Clean recycled packing material will be used when possible. The Book Shed has a been a member of the Vermont Antiquarian Bookseller's Association since 1997. An online bookseller with a bookshop sensibility!