Scouting for Boys

by Robert Baden-Powell

Scouting for Boys, first published in six fortnightly parts in 1908, is the handbook with which Robert Baden-Powell, the hero of Mafeking, launched the Boy Scout movement. Written as a series of campfire yarns, it teaches tracking and woodcraft, camping, cooking, knots and signaling, observation and deduction in the manner of Sherlock Holmes, first aid and lifesaving, health and fitness, and the chivalry, patriotism and good citizenship that Baden-Powell wanted boys to learn through outdoor games rather than lectures. The Scout Law and Promise appear here in their original form, together with the stories of pioneers, explorers and frontier scouts that gave the movement its imagery. The book has sold in the tens of millions and shaped youth organizations across the world. It is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, with the first chapter free.