The Lost Cure. Edited with Annotations and an Introduction by Rob Couteau

We now have a unique opportunity to examine how novelist Charles Beadle portrayed the African sleeping sickness epidemic: first in a work of literature, A Whiteman's Burden, and then in a mass-market form of genre fiction, The Lost Cure. In both these works, the devastation of the pandemic that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives is etched with vivid, moving poignancy. The Lost Cure is featured in Adventure magazine's 30 January 1923 issue but has never before been published in book form. As always, Beadle's work resonates with a potent authenticity, because it's deeply grounded in actual experience. A courageous explorer and innovative writer, he spent a dozen years in Africa between 1898 and 1910, building a treasure trove of memories and existential observations that would later nourish his stories, essays, and novels.