A Rough Knight for the Queen

by Philip José Farmer

Sir Richard Francis Burton, the protagonist of Philip Jose Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go, had even more adventures in real life than he did in fiction. His exploits include journeying to Mecca in disguise, at a time when Europeans were forbidden access on pain of death; publishing unexpurgated English translations of One Thousand and One Nights and The Kama Sutra; and, along with John Hanning Speke, being one of the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. Burton was a captain in the army of the East India Company and later served briefly in the Crimean War. He was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa, where he led an expedition guided by locals and was the first European known to have seen Lake Tanganyika. He served as British consul in Fernando Po, Santos in Brazil, Damascus, and finally in Trieste. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood in 1886.

This biography by Farmer opens in 1855, when Burton was thirty-four years old and on the expedition searching for the source of the Nile. Written for a men's magazine in 1953, but not used, the manuscript languished in obscurity until it was finally published in 2006 in the collection Pearls from Peoria, edited by Paul Spiteri.

Published for the first time here in an affordable standalone edition, featuring cover and interior art by Charles Berlin, introductory material by Mick Walton (author of Sir Richard Burton and His Circle), Mark Hodder (author the Burton and Swinburne novels) and Paul Spiteri (coauthor, with Farmer, of "Getting Ready to Write"), A Rough Knight for the Queen is Farmer's thoughtful biography of one of his heroes.

110 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, but spent much of his life in Peoria, Illinois.

Farmer is best known for his Riverworld series and the earlier World of Tiers series. He is noted for his use of sexual and religious themes in his work, his fascination for and reworking of the lore of legendary pulp heroes, and occasional tongue-in-cheek pseudonymous works written as if by fictional characters.

Reviews

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully concise biography of Sir Richard Francis Burton, focused on his adventures across Africa but with a bit of psychological introspection and British politics thrown in.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very brief biographical sketch of Richard Francis Burton. Not particularly satisfying.