I am delighted to share with you the title and book cover that have been decided upon for my comprehensive David Livingstone biography. That volume is slated to be published by Christian Focus Publications sometime next year, 2023.
The book’s title is David Livingstone: Missionary, Explorer, Abolitionist. That title succinctly indicates the primary subject of the biography – Livingstone, the eminent nineteenth-century Scottish ambassador for Christ to Africa – as well as the three key aspects of his career and service carried out there. Livingstone always viewed himself fundamentally as a Christian missionary, even when carrying out other major responsibilities that did not always seem explicitly missions-related. Among those other significant emphases were conducting extensive explorations of south-central and south-eastern Africa, and sounding the alarm concerning the horrors of the Portuguese and Arab slave trades taking place in that portion of the continent. Those tireless efforts, in turn, prepared the way for slavery to be abolished and Christian missionaries to enter that vast region of Africa in the years immediately following Livingstone’s death.
I think Christian Focus Publication’s intended cover for the book is splendid! It is attractive, striking and fitting. The portrait of Livingstone (part of a fuller oil painting of him produced by Frederick Havill in the late 1800s) depicts his earnest, resolute spirit. The map is of a system of lakes and rivers that Livingstone discovered and explored in the closing years of his life while seeking to determine the headwaters of the Nile. The painting below the book’s title is of the scenic, dramatic Victoria Falls, which is commonly considered the greatest of Livingstone’s geological discoveries.
My entire Livingstone manuscript has already been taken through its initial editing process by the publisher. Other production aspects of the book are also underway at Christian Focus. In the coming months leading up to the book’s publication, I plan to share periodic additional features to spark further interest in this remarkable man and his extraordinary life and accomplishments.
Copyright 2022 by Vance E. Christie
