What do you think?
Rate this book
Trader Horn
This is the stuff of legends — the true story of the life of Trader Horn. Down on his luck in old age, Horn recounts his wild youth as an ivory trader in central Africa, journeying into jungles teaming with buffalo, gorillas, and man-eating leopards; liberating an Isorga princess from captivity; navigating treacherous rivers; freeing slaves; and meeting Cecil Rhodes, the founder of Rhodesia. Trader Horn is a vivid and unforgettable portrait of a vanished period in African history. “An amazing book.... It casts a spell over one.” — The New York Times Book Review
302 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1927
4 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Alfred Aloysius Horn
29 books1 followerAlfred Aloysius "Trader" Horn (June 21, 1861–June 26, 1931) was a journeyman, adventurer, writer, and ivory trader in central Africa. He wrote a book, Trader Horn, detailing his journeys. The book also documents his efforts to free slaves; meeting the founder of Rhodesia Cecil Rhodes; and liberating a princess from captivity.
He died in Whitsable, UK in 1931, at the age of 79.
He died in Whitsable, UK in 1931, at the age of 79.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 1, 2007
Pure bunkum, as far as I can tell, but lively entertainment all the same. An old scalliwag's life as a trader on the Ivory Coast. You be the judge of how much is real and how much is hyperbole.
August 9, 2022
Another one of those books that is better than 3 but not quite a 4, really it’s a 3.5.
Very interesting adventures in Africa in the Last third of the 19th century. It’s pretty much all true - although as the author sometimes hints, he might’ve coloured things up a little bit. It’s written in a very interesting format because it has three introductions, and the last introduction is by Ethelreda Lewis, a British novelist who met Alfred Aloysius Smith, a.k.a. Trader Horn quite by accident and convinced him to co-write a book about his adventures in Africa with her. Each chapter consists of two parts: the first part is his narrative of his adventures. The second part is a conversation that he has with her that she reprints.
This was written in 1927 and modern readers will have to realize that some of the attitudes and language presented was typical of most European traders or explorers in Africa back in the last third of the 19th century.
It’s also a little hard to follow at times, to keep up with all of the different characters and situation as he describes, and he sometimes repeats himself a little bit, particularly in the interviews with Lewis.
His adventures include journeying into jungles full of gorillas, leopards and elephants, saving an Isorga princess from sacred captivity and being the admiral of a cannibal river fleet. So there’s plenty of adventure.
It’s a really interesting look back at how the world - and how Africa - was viewed in the Victorian/Edwardian era.
Very interesting adventures in Africa in the Last third of the 19th century. It’s pretty much all true - although as the author sometimes hints, he might’ve coloured things up a little bit. It’s written in a very interesting format because it has three introductions, and the last introduction is by Ethelreda Lewis, a British novelist who met Alfred Aloysius Smith, a.k.a. Trader Horn quite by accident and convinced him to co-write a book about his adventures in Africa with her. Each chapter consists of two parts: the first part is his narrative of his adventures. The second part is a conversation that he has with her that she reprints.
This was written in 1927 and modern readers will have to realize that some of the attitudes and language presented was typical of most European traders or explorers in Africa back in the last third of the 19th century.
It’s also a little hard to follow at times, to keep up with all of the different characters and situation as he describes, and he sometimes repeats himself a little bit, particularly in the interviews with Lewis.
His adventures include journeying into jungles full of gorillas, leopards and elephants, saving an Isorga princess from sacred captivity and being the admiral of a cannibal river fleet. So there’s plenty of adventure.
It’s a really interesting look back at how the world - and how Africa - was viewed in the Victorian/Edwardian era.
May 13, 2023
Fascinating memoir of 19th century trading in Africa if read with context. There’s also a constant wondering of the voracity of the memories and the timeline gets a bit fuzzy. Still way better than the movie.
November 4, 2020
Reading the reviews of Trader Horn I felt like I had just read a completely different book. It may have fooled people when it was first published in 1927 but to read the 2002 edition is an insult to intelligence. If he were a trader, he would have been aware of, but does not mention, the near genocide of the Africans in the Congo region for the harvesting of rubber and collection of ivory. If anyone is interested in the real story get a copy of King Leopold’s Ghost or Conrad’s Heart of Darkness which is based on his time on the river boats in the Congo.
Many of the places he mentions cannot be found on internet for example Samba Falls is mentioned many times, the place is either a figment of the imagination or lost to history over the past century. Horn claims Edwin Booth, the Shakespearean actor (the brother of John Wilkes Booth) taught him elocution at some boarding school in England, if that were the case, reading his narrative in the second half of each chapter all was forgotten.
Horn claims he spoke the native language and hunted with indigenous Africans, but his knowledge of wildlife is totally wrong – Hippos are harmless – bull elephants lead the heard to find water – lions are very fussy eaters etc. If what he states is true, he would have known better.
He also has an uncanny memory for the names of villages, different tribes their chiefs even brothers of the chiefs from 50 years previous. Many traders and explores to this region in the mid to late 19th Century got sick, many died in Africa and many of those that returned suffered long term health problems. This guy never got sick ??
Horn comes across an alcoholic bigot; the story is too outrageous to be taken seriously, there are just too many holes in the story. He spent some time in Africa, but the rest is just bunkum. Trader Horn should never be promoted as a true story, it is just bad fiction.
Many of the places he mentions cannot be found on internet for example Samba Falls is mentioned many times, the place is either a figment of the imagination or lost to history over the past century. Horn claims Edwin Booth, the Shakespearean actor (the brother of John Wilkes Booth) taught him elocution at some boarding school in England, if that were the case, reading his narrative in the second half of each chapter all was forgotten.
Horn claims he spoke the native language and hunted with indigenous Africans, but his knowledge of wildlife is totally wrong – Hippos are harmless – bull elephants lead the heard to find water – lions are very fussy eaters etc. If what he states is true, he would have known better.
He also has an uncanny memory for the names of villages, different tribes their chiefs even brothers of the chiefs from 50 years previous. Many traders and explores to this region in the mid to late 19th Century got sick, many died in Africa and many of those that returned suffered long term health problems. This guy never got sick ??
Horn comes across an alcoholic bigot; the story is too outrageous to be taken seriously, there are just too many holes in the story. He spent some time in Africa, but the rest is just bunkum. Trader Horn should never be promoted as a true story, it is just bad fiction.
November 24, 2021
Essentially one long tall tale an old man is a telling of his supposed exploits as a trader in Africa in the late 1800's. Hard to tell what's real, what's exaggerated, and what's pure fiction, which is part of the fun, maybe. (Sort of a "Commander McBragg" before there was such a cartoon, but without the pomp.) I have no idea what, if anything, the editor, Ethelreda Lewis, to whom Mr. Horn sent his writings, did, other than add monologues he had when visiting with her. It's humorous without being self-aware.
This is more about reading a work from a begone day as an insight into that era rather than reading the work for its own merits.
This is more about reading a work from a begone day as an insight into that era rather than reading the work for its own merits.
Read
November 15, 2023an unlikely story about a real character
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 27, 2024
I never finished reading it. It is interesting as an example of colonial period story telling with a romantic (possibly contrived) set up. I didn't find the narrator very trustworthy...a lot of tall tales (Reminded me of the stories mountain men told green horns around the campfire in th old west) and an implausable fairy tale like episode. I don't regret starting it but I got bored and picked up somehting else to read. I gave it 4 stars, now I think I will downgrade to 3.
July 2, 2009
This book was the basis of the 1931 jungle adventure film of the same name, a film that was once extremely popular and influential, but now hard to even find. As it turns out, the film was quite loosely based on the book, which varies so much that it's something of a wonder they kept the name.
The structure of the book is unusual, in that each chapter features Horn's own autobiographical writing about his time in late 19th century Africa, and then Lewis' transcription of his talking to her about the portion of his memoirs he had just written.
It's hard to even imagine the sort of Africa that Aloysius Horn traveled, lived and worked in, an Africa at a time when gorillas and elephants were so numerous no one thought anything about shooting them, and it only appeals to the alien appeal of the setting. Horn's narrative is extremely exciting, as are all the adventures he hints at but never gets to write in his talks with Lewis.
The work is obviously one of his time, and the attitudes toward other races and ethnicities are hardly enlightened, but I was somewhat impressed with how much Horn seemed to genuinely love and respect African people, despite referring to them as savages, cannibals and boys throughout, and that he reserved his ugliest racism toward the French, of whom he never says anything approaching a kind word.
The structure of the book is unusual, in that each chapter features Horn's own autobiographical writing about his time in late 19th century Africa, and then Lewis' transcription of his talking to her about the portion of his memoirs he had just written.
It's hard to even imagine the sort of Africa that Aloysius Horn traveled, lived and worked in, an Africa at a time when gorillas and elephants were so numerous no one thought anything about shooting them, and it only appeals to the alien appeal of the setting. Horn's narrative is extremely exciting, as are all the adventures he hints at but never gets to write in his talks with Lewis.
The work is obviously one of his time, and the attitudes toward other races and ethnicities are hardly enlightened, but I was somewhat impressed with how much Horn seemed to genuinely love and respect African people, despite referring to them as savages, cannibals and boys throughout, and that he reserved his ugliest racism toward the French, of whom he never says anything approaching a kind word.
June 8, 2016
Revealing story about late 19th century European activity in Western Equatorial Africa. At this time, Europeans were not even aware of the existence of gorillas (they were called dawnbreakers). There was great demand for rubber (which was obtained from wild vines not trees), ivory and exotic hardwoods which were the main items of commerce Trader Horn sought. Slaves were still being actively traded but Trader Horn did not participate in the slave trade. Trader Horn had to contend with crocodiles, rogue elephants and cannibals as he traded on the Ogowe River. His contemporaries, some of whom he met, were DeBrassa, Rhodes, du Chaillu, Stanley and Livingstone.
The genesis of the novel is poignant in that a man who had experienced all that he had, at the end of his life, was reduced to peddling homemade wire goods in Johannesburg where he encountered Ethelreda Lewis, who transcribed his stories....he went from Joss house to Doss house.
I read "Trader Horn" after seeing the movie on Turner Classic Movies which fascinated me. I am now reading "Tramp Royal" which is a biography of Trader Horn by Tim Couzens and "From My African Notebook" by Albert Shweitzer who founded his hospital on Trader Horn's old stamping grounds. It seems that Trader Horn was a Forrest Gump on steroids, having seen everything, met everyone and done everything.
The genesis of the novel is poignant in that a man who had experienced all that he had, at the end of his life, was reduced to peddling homemade wire goods in Johannesburg where he encountered Ethelreda Lewis, who transcribed his stories....he went from Joss house to Doss house.
I read "Trader Horn" after seeing the movie on Turner Classic Movies which fascinated me. I am now reading "Tramp Royal" which is a biography of Trader Horn by Tim Couzens and "From My African Notebook" by Albert Shweitzer who founded his hospital on Trader Horn's old stamping grounds. It seems that Trader Horn was a Forrest Gump on steroids, having seen everything, met everyone and done everything.
June 4, 2008
Won this book, so I didn't pick it up. I enjoyed the read and movement between narrations and the flashbacks. I loved the character Alfred Aloysius a simple man in the looks selling kitchen stuff door to door but with a great past of adventure. The action takes place in the jungle with a lot of action; gorilla hunting, elephant attack, tribes war, princess kidnapping, etc... Made me think of Indiana Jones ancestor but with more muscles...I would like to rent to 1931 movie. Remind me of Tarzan too...
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews