Peter Hill Beard - The End of The Game - 1965

Hardcover binding in very good condition, dustjacket in good condition with tears, but complete.

The End of the Game by Peter Beard, published in 1965 by Paul Hamlyn, London, is the rare first UK edition of the American photographer's seminal debut book. It is widely celebrated as a masterpiece of environmental photography that blended close-up wildlife documentation with historical analysis, signaling a shift in the ecological consciousness of the 20th century

Large Quarto (approx. 28 x 20 cm), a substantial oversized volume. Bound in heavy green cloth boards featuring the book title stamped in gilt along the spine. The striking original dust jacket features a fierce, close-up image of a lion peering through the brush on the front. The subtitle on the jacket block highlights it as a chronicle of the "gradual remorseless destruction of the central symbol of Africa’s life—the animal". Celebrated for its rich, high-quality gravure reproduction, which provides exceptionally deep tones and texture to the black-and-white plates.

The book functions as an "epic visual poem on the subject of loss," capturing the rapid transition between the "Old Africa" and the "New Africa". Beard spent over a decade documenting the wildlife across Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania—focusing heavily on his work in Tsavo East National Park. Rather than a clinical data compilation, Beard layered his own field notes, text drawings, and calligraphy. To build context around the colonial impact on the continent, Beard integrated archival photographs and quotes from early explorers, missionaries, and legendary big-game hunters like J.A. Hunter, Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), Theodore Roosevelt, and Philip Perciva.

The 1965 Paul Hamlyn UK edition is highly prized by collectors of natural history, photobooks, and African history due to its unique gravure presentation and its historical significance as Beard's very first published work.