Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$96.21 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Third cheap edition, published during the second World War in 1940. The book was first published in 1899, with a second revised edition in 1902. The first cheap edition appeared in 1933, with a second edition also in 1933, followed by this edition in 1940. Illustrated with twenty-two maps and plans, including fold-out maps, all of which are present as called for. ***Very good in buff-coloured cloth-covered boards with black titles to spine. Edges and corners of boards slightly rubbed. Corners slightly bumped. Head and tail of spine rubbed. Contemporaneous gift inscription to front free endpaper: 'To Dad Xmas 1943 from Alastair and Hanna' in blue fountain pen ink. Pages clean. Spine tight. No dustwrapper. All folding maps clean and in very good condition. xii prelim pages including contents and a three-page introduction by Winston Churchill - plus a two-page extract from the preface of the first edition to the fore, also by Winston Churchill - plus 381 pages including Appendix A & B and Index to rear. 222mm x 142mm. ***'Contents: The Rebellion of the Mahdi; The Fate of the Envoy; The Dervish Empire; The Years of Preparation; The Beginning of the War; Firket; The Recovery of the Dongola Province; The Desert Railway; Abu Hamed; Berber; Reconnaissance; The Battle of the Atbara; The Grand Advance; The Operations of the First of September; The Battle of Omburman; The Fall of the City; 'The Fashoda Incident'; On the Blue Nile; The End of the Khalifa; Appendix A: Composition of the Staff during the River War; Appendix B: Text of the Soudan Agreement of the 19th of January, 1899, and of the Declaration of the 21st of March, 1899. ***Third cheap edition published during the Second World War, with all twenty-two folding maps and text maps present, as called for. Of interest to collectors of books by Winston Churchill and military historians. Originally published in 1899, "The River War" recounts Churchill's experiences and reflections concerning British involvement in the Sudan, including Churchill's participation in "the last great British cavalry charge". In 1933, a so-called 'Second Cheap Edition' was made from plates of the 1902 edition, with a bibliographically significant new introduction by the author, in which he explained that "A generation has grown up which knows little of why we are in Egypt and the Sudan." There were ultimately five printings of this edition published, the last appearing in 1951. The 1940 wartime published edition is now uncommon. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.
Seller: Orlando Booksellers, Lincoln, United Kingdom
Winston S. Churchill. The River War. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1940.
Price: US$375.00 + shipping
Description: This collectible Second World War reprint of The River War features the elusive dust jacket. Originally published in 1899, The River War recounts Churchill's experiences and reflections concerning British involvement in the Sudan, including Churchills participation in "the last great British cavalry charge". In 1933, a so-called "Second Cheap Edition" was made from plates of the 1902 edition with a bibliographically significant new introduction by the author explaining that "A generation has grown up which knows little of why we are in Egypt and the Sudan." There were ultimately five printings of this edition with at least seven different dust jackets issued (at least two for the 1933 second printing and two for the final, 1951 printing).Of these seven dust jackets, among the most scarce is the dust jacket for this 1941 printing - the only wartime issue of this edition and featuring a jacket unique to this printing. Churchills bibliographer, Ronald Cohen, definitively asserts that the publication date was 28 February 1941, not "1940" as printed on both the title page and copyright page. This was less than 10 months after the author had become wartime prime minister. When this printing was published, the author once an itinerant cavalry officer and war correspondent during the reign of Queen Victoria was leading Britains desperate struggle to survive the early catastrophes of the Second World War, including the Battle of the Atlantic, the fall of France, the evacuation at Dunkirk, and the Battle of Britain, with both sustained aerial attacks on civilian populations and British cities, and the real prospect of Nazi invasion of England.Survival rate for these jackets is quite low, perhaps owing in part to the thin, white paper on which they were printed. The books beneath also proved fragile, bound in a coarse, dark lilac cloth susceptible to soiling, fading, and wear, with contents prone to spotting and toning. Here is a very good copy in a good dust jacket. The cloth binding retains unfaded color, with none of the toning typical for unjacketed copies. Light wear is confined to spine ends and corners. The contents show only a single previous owner mark - an Edinburgh address and telephone number embossed on the upper front free endpaper. Spotting is primarily confined to the page edges and prelims. The dust jacket is unclipped. Shallow losses along the top edge, as well as .75 and .5 deep losses at the top edge of the front face and a smaller loss at the lower front corner, have been patched in an amateur but serviceable fashion on the jacket verso, giving the appearance of a complete jacket. We would price this copy considerably higher were it not for these reasonably unobtrusive "repairs". The jacket shows moderate overall soiling and staining, heavier to the spine, and is protected with a clear, removable, archival cover.In 1883, Mahdist forces of messianic leader Mohammed Ahmed overwhelmed British-led forces, precipitating British withdrawal from the Sudan. In 1885, General Gordon famously lost his life in a doomed defense of Khartoum, where he had been sent to lead evacuation of Egyptian forces. General Kitchener reoccupied the Sudan in 1898. With him was a very young Winston Churchill, who participated in "the last great British cavalry charge" during the battle of Omdurman in September 1898, where the Mahdist forces were decisively defeated. Writing about the British campaign in the Sudan, Churchill - a young officer in a colonial British army - is unusually sympathetic to the Mahdist forces and critical of Imperial cynicism and cruelty. This work offers us the candid perspective of the future 20th century icon from the distinctly 19th century battlefields where Churchill learned to write and earned his early fame. Reference: Cohen A2.4.c, Woods/ICS A2(da.3), Langworth p.33
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$1850.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: This is a very good copy, in the rare dust jacket, of the Third, and by far the rarest printing of the so-called "Cheap Edition," issued on February 28, 1941, according to bibliographer Ronald Cohen, despite the publisher's indicated 1940 publication date. Produced using the original plates from the first abridged edition of 1902, the "Cheap Edition" remains important bibliographically for the new Introduction that Churchill wrote for it. The unclipped dust jacket here has toned unevenly along the spine, with edge-chipping at the spine head, some faint creases and scratches front and rear, and two fractional losses along the rear upper jacket edge. The cloth is clean and crisp with a tiny crunch to the front upper corner. The contents are nearly fine, with a fractional separation just beginning at the front hinge and specks of foxing to the rear pastedown only. Quite a handsome copy. English Abridged One-Volume ?Cheap? Edition (Third Printing) (Cohen A2.4.c) (Woods A2d). 8vo (381 pages, 22 maps, many folding, some two-color.)
Seller: CHARTWELL BOOKSELLERS, NEW YORK, NY, U.S.A.