Gerald Camden Wheeler — Mono-Alu Folklore

London, George Routldge & Sons, 1926. First edition. Cloth. Renowned Sierra Leonean doctor Robert Wellesley-Cole's copy of this first edition study of the folklore of the inhabitants of the Bougainville Strait. The first edition of British anthropologist Gerald Camden Wheeler's study of the folk tales and traditions of the inhabitants of the Western Solomon Islands. The collection of tales and song-texts given in this volume were gathered during a stay of ten months in Alu and Mono, Bougainville Strait, between 1908 and 1909. The author has given the texts as taken down from the dictation of a Mono-Alu man, son of a late chief, and the Mono text is given in all but eight cases.To the front pastedown of this work is the contemporary owner's inscription of Robert Wellesley-Cole. A medical doctor born in Sierra Leone, Wellesley-Cole was the first West African to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Following Sierra Leone's Independence on 27 April 1961, then Prime Minister Milton Margai offered Wellesley-Cole the position of senior medical officer. In the publisher's original cloth binding. Some marks to tail of boards, with a portion of the cloth absent to tail of back strip. Bumping to head of back strip. Contemporary owner's inscription to front pastedown. Front hinge starting, but remains firm. Internally, firmly bound. Some spotting to first few pages. Pages otherwise bright and clean. Good . Ill.: None. Good .