Safari:: A Saga of the African Blue
About this ebook
What sets this book apart is not only Johnson's infectious enthusiasm for exploration but the 66 remarkable illustrations that accompany the text — photographs capturing lions in motion, elephants at the water's edge, tribal communities, sweeping landscapes, and the sheer immediacy of life on safari. These images transform the work from mere travel narrative into a visual and historical document of Africa during a period of profound change.
Johnson recounts the mishaps and triumphs of camp life, close encounters with large game, and the logistical ingenuity required to travel by plane across regions few outsiders had yet seen. His prose blends humour, suspense, and genuine reverence for the natural world, offering readers both the excitement of adventure and a deep appreciation for the African wilderness.
Safari: A Saga of the African Blue remains a classic of travel literature — thrilling, human, and beautifully visual. For readers drawn to exploration, early wildlife photography, or histories of Africa, this book offers not just a story, but an immersive experience shaped by curiosity, courage, and the lens of a pioneering documentarian.
About the author
Martin Elmer Johnson (1884-1937) and his wife Osa Helen Johnson (1894-1953) were American adventurers and documentary filmmakers who captured the public's imagination through their films and books of adventure in exotic, faraway lands. Photographers, explorers, marketers, naturalists and authors, Martin and Osa studied the wildlife and people of East and Central Africa, the South Pacific Islands and British North Borneo. They explored then-unknown lands and brought back film footage and photographs, offering many Americans their first understanding of these distant lands.
Martin was born on October 9, 1884 in Rockford, Illinois and grew up in the Kansas towns of Lincoln and Independence. He read a magazine article by Jack London—American novelist, journalist, and social activist—in which he described his plans to travel the world in a thirty-foot boat. On the Snark, which sailed around the world from 1907-1909, Johnson worked as the lead cook and bottle washer. He later started a traveling road show that toured the U.S. displaying photographs and artifacts collected on the voyage. He met his wife Osa during one of his tours in Osa's hometown of Chanute, Kansas, and the couple were married in May 1910 in Independence.
The Johnsons spent the next 7 years touring with Martin's travelogue in the U.S., Europe and Africa. Martin published his book Through the South Seas With Jack London in 1913, and the Johnsons made a series of documentary films, featuring mostly African and South Sea tribal groups and wildlife, including Simba: The King of the Beasts (1928), Across the World with Mr. and Mrs. Johnson (1930), Wings Over Africa (1934) and Borneo (1937).
Martin Johnson was killed in a plane crash near the Los Pinetos peak in California on January 13, 1937, aged 52.
The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum opened in 1961 in Chanute, Kansas and houses a collection of about 10,000 Johnson photographs and many of his films.
