Journey Without Maps

In 1935, Graham Greene set out across the largely uncharted interior of Liberia alongside his cousin Barbara Greene. The route was a hard one, and the physical hardships of the trip weighed on them throughout. Partway through, Greene became gravely ill. Alert to the sickness around him, he recorded the many diseases afflicting the people he met, above all malaria and venereal disease, which were widespread in the region. Published in 1936, the book is a first-person account of that expedition, written by the author who would go on to become a celebrated novelist.