STANLEY, SIR HENRY MORTON

born Jan. 28, 1841, Denbigh, Denbighshire, Wales died May 10, 1904, London, Eng. original name John Rowlands, Congolese byname Bula Matari (Breaker of Rocks) British-American explorer of central Africa, famous for his rescue of the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone and for his discoveries in and development of the Congo region. He was knighted in 1899. Additional reading Stanley's story as told in his The Autobiography of Sir Henry Morton Stanley, ed. by Dorothy Stanley (1909), was closely adhered to by Frank Hird, H.M. Stanley: The Authorized Life (1935); by Ian Anstruther, I Presume (1956, reissued 1988; also published as Dr. Livingstone, I Presume, 1957); and by Byron Farwell, The Man Who Presumed (1957, reprinted 1989). A new light was thrown on the subject by Richard Hall, Stanley: An Adventurer Explored (1974), a penetrating biography based on most of the extant manuscript collections pertaining to Stanley. This work was carried on by Frank McLynn, Stanley: The Making of an Explorer (1989); and by John Bierman, Dark Safari: The Life Behind the Legend of Henry Morton Stanley (1990). Eyewitness accounts of Stanley in the field are quoted by Iain R. Smith, The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, 18861890 (1972). Norman R. Bennett (ed.), Stanley's Despatches to the New York Herald, 18711872, 18741877 (1970), contains an illuminating introduction that reassesses Stanley and his place in the history of 19th-century exploration. Dorothy Middleton