Sir Burton published The Kama Sutra

Sir Richard Francis Burton

It is the birthday of Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821), who wrote of his 1858 exploration of East Africa and discovery of Lake Tanganyika in Lake Regions of Equatorial Africa (1860) and his exploration of West Africa and the Congo River in Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo (1876). Burton had a long running public feud with his fellow explorer, John Hanning Speke, who had accompanied him on the expedition to Tanganyika. Speke was very much the British imperialist while Burton sympathized with the natives and was often outspoken about British imperialist practices. Burton also served with the British East India Company and learned Muslim customs and behavior. He once traveled in disguise on a pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca and participated in Muslim rituals undetected. He wrote of his experiences in A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Meccah (1855). Burton had an exceptional interest in sexual practices of various cultures and collaborated with his close friend and linguist Foster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot to translate Sanskrit texts and published The Kama Sutra of Vatsayana (1883) and the Ananga Ranga (1885). Burton also translated an adult version of One Thousand and One Nights (later called Arabian Nights). Burton and Arbuthnot formed the Kama Shastra Society in Britain to publish the books privately since they were considered obscene and, therefore, would have been illegal otherwise.