Edward James Glave

Edward James Glave (13 September 1863 – 12 May 1895) was an English travel writer and journalist, known for his multiple expeditions in the Congo Free State

Life E. J. Glave was born in Ripon, England. After graduating from school, Glave became an administrative clerk in London, but this did not particularly satisfy him personally. He entered the service of the Congo Free State, under the control of Belgium, and arrived in Vivi on 12 June 1883. Henry Morton Stanley, King Leopold's colonial agent in the Congo, was impressed by the young Glave. Stanley, who had no children of his own, later saw his foster son in Glave. Glave was allowed to accompany Stanley on the expedition up the Congo river. He was tasked to build an exploratory station in Lukolela while Stanley continued. Glave built the station and managed to make good contacts with the locals. He stayed in Lukolela for two years; on 2 November 1885, he was appointed head of Bolobo station and a month later head of Equator station in Mbandaka. When his contract with the Congo Free State expired in April 1886, he returned to England on June 10, 1886. Glave then offered his services to the American diplomat and businessman Henry Shelton Sanford and was back in the Congo in 1887. In 1889 he returned to England again.

Glave went to the United States where he could profit from lectures on his African experiences. In New York, in 1890, he joined an expedition sponsored by Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (published by Frank Leslie) to Alaska and British Columbia. His participation was used for advertising by the newspaper. He was the deputy leader and draftsman of the expedition. Glave's travelogues were printed in the newspaper. His account of the Congo was discussed at length by Arthur Conan Doyle in his pamphlet The Crime of the Congo (1909), and quoted by W. E. B. Du Bois in his memoir Darkwater (1920), amongst others. Edmund Dene Morel also used Glave's journalistic writings in pamphlets made for the Congo Reform Association, which promoted reform of the atrocious conditions enacted on native Africans in the Congo Free State

Publications In savage Africa; or, Six years of adventure in Congo-land, 1892 "Life in the Wilds of Central Africa", in Journal of the American Geographical Society, January 1893 Articles in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper Articles in The Century Magazine Glave, Edward J. (2013). Travels to the Alseck: Edward Glave’s reports from southwest Yukon and southeast Alaska, 1890-91. Yukon Native Language Centre. ISBN 978-1-55242-368-4, at, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Doug-Hitch/publication/320280460_Travels_to_the_Alseck_Edward_Glave's_reports_from_southwest_Yukon_and_southeast_Alaska_1890-91/links/6372db0954eb5f547cd3afe3/Travels-to-the-Alseck-Edward-Glaves-reports-from-southwest-Yukon-and-southeast-Alaska-1890-91.pdf (Jan. 28, 2025).