Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$411.10 + shipping
Description: Good cloth copy; gilt-blocked title to spine. Boards dust-toned. Spine bands and panel edges slightly bumped and rubbed as with age. Spine warped. Library marks remain. Internally, bright and clean. Remains quite well-preserved overall. Physical description; 337 pp. Subjects; Blood, Sir Bindon. India, North West Frontier, Malakand Field Force, 1897-1898, N W Frontier. 1 Kg.
Seller: MW Books Ltd., Galway, Ireland
Price: US$460.00 + shipping
Description: Good cloth copy; gilt-blocked title to spine. Boards dust-toned. Spine bands and panel edges slightly bumped and rubbed as with age. Spine warped. Library marks remain. Internally, bright and clean. Remains quite well-preserved overall. Physical description; 337 pp. Subjects; Blood, Sir Bindon. India, North West Frontier, Malakand Field Force, 1897-1898, N W Frontier. 1 Kg.
Seller: MW Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$550.00 + shipping
Description: This is the first printing of the Silver Library edition of Churchill's first book. The Story of the Malakand Field Force recounts Churchill's experiences while attached to Sir Bindon Blood's punitive expedition on the Northwest Frontier of India in 1897. Publication of the first edition of 1898 was arranged by Churchill's uncle while the author was still in India, resulting in numerous spelling and detail errors. Churchill was incensed by the errors and acted with haste to address them. Hence later states of the first edition bear errata slips. In part because of the errors in the first edition which so vexed Churchill, the publisher also issued a second edition less than a year after the first in January 1899. This Silver Library edition was the first to incorporate the author's corrections in the text, making this an important and highly collectable edition. Unfortunately, the maroon boards proved highly susceptible to fading and wear, the paper easily browned and became brittle, and the binding often cracked. This first Silver Library edition, first printing - one of just 1,440 copies approaches very good condition. The binding is clean and tight, though with a bit of forward lean, customary spine toning, and light wear to spine ends and corners. The contents distinguish this copy unusually bright for the edition, with the customary age-toning only apparent at the perimeter blank margins of the pages. We find only a hint of scattered spotting. The sole previous ownership mark is an owner name and date of "Sept 1900." inked at the top of the half-title recto. The distinctive swan and ship endpapers are intact, as are the frontispiece, tissue guard, and maps. We do note a roughly 1.5 x .5 inch stain to the upper right corner of the first folding map (not affecting the illustration) and the facing upper blank margin of p.1, apparently from something once injudiciously laid into the book. When The Story of the Malakand Field Force was written and published, Churchill was a young cavalry officer still serving in India. While he had successfully applied his pen as a war correspondent - indeed the book is based on his dispatches to the Daily Telegraph and the Pioneer Mail - this was his first book-length work. The young Churchill was motivated by a combination of pique and ambition. He was vexed that his Daily Telegraph columns were to be published unsigned. On 25 October 1897 Churchill wrote to his mother: ".I had written them with the design. of bringing my personality before the electorate." Two weeks later, his resolve to write a book firming, Churchill again wrote to his mother: ".It is a great undertaking but if carried out will yield substantial results in every way, financially, politically, and even, though do I care a damn, militarily." Having invested his ambition in this first book, he clearly labored over it: "I have discovered a great power of application which I did not think I possessed. For two months I have worked not less than five hours a day." The finished manuscript was sent to his mother on the last day of 1897 and published on 14 March of 1898. Bibliographic reference: Cohen A1.3.a, Woods/ICS A1(ba.1), Langworth p.20.
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$563.58 + shipping
Description: Hardback, 7.25 x 5 inches. Green polished full calf leather fine binding by ?Truslove & Hanson.? Gilt paneled boards, Lettering to front ?Friern Barnet Grammar School.? With raised banding, gilt decorations and brown leather label to spine. Marbled endpapers and page edges. In very good near fine condition. Sunning to spine and top edges. Else clean smart cover. Endpapers darkened and foxed, penned prize inscription to front ?W. Elldred, Examination Work, 1909.? Inside pages tanned with some mild foxing to edges, one tear to top edge of p333/334. Maps and plates all clean and bright. Else a very good clean and tight copy. Scarce as a 1st edition, this is the 1st thus ?Silver Library Edition? printed a year later. xvi + 337pp. Illustrated with a B&W frontis portrait of Major-Gen. Sir Bindon Blood. And 6 maps including 2 coloured fold-out maps.
Seller: PROCTOR / THE ANTIQUE MAP & BOOKSHOP, DORCHESTER, United Kingdom
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Description: Very good plus in finely woven red cloth bordered in bright gilt on the front boards and on the spine which is lightly sun-faded. Occasional pencilling. With 2 fold-out maps and 32 page catalogue. Charming swan & ship endpapers. With the frontispece of Major Gen. Sir Bindon Blood protected by a tissue guard. Small abrasion at the center of the front paste-down. This first Silver Library edition, first printing - one of just 1,440 copies, is in very good plus condition. Several maps and plates and numerous pencil markings in the margins. This is the first printing of the Silver Library edition of Churchill's first book. The Story of the Malakand Field Force recounts Churchill's experiences while attached to Sir Bindon Blood's punitive expedition on the Northwest Frontier of India in 1897. Publication of the first edition of 1898 was arranged by Churchill's uncle while the author was still in India, resulting in numerous spelling and detail errors. Churchill was incensed by the errors and acted with haste to address them. Hence later states of the first edition bear errata slips. In part because of the errors in the first edition which so vexed Churchill, the publisher also issued a second edition less than a year after the first in January 1899. This Silver Library edition was the first to incorporate the author's corrections in the text, making this an important and highly collectable edition. Unfortunately, the maroon boards proved highly susceptible to fading and wear, the paper easily browned and became brittle, and the binding often cracked. This first Silver Library edition, first printing - one of just 1,440 copies - is in very good plus condition.(Churchill Book Collector)
Seller: Brainerd Phillipson Rare Books, Holliston, MA, U.S.A.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Description: This is the first printing of the Silver Library edition of Churchill's first book. The Story of the Malakand Field Force was based on Churchill's exploits with Sir Bindon Blood's expedition on the Northwest Frontier of India in 1897. While Churchill had previously applied his pen as a published correspondent, this was his first book-length work and he clearly labored over it: "I have discovered a great power of application which I did not think I possessed. For two months I have worked not less than five hours a day." Publication of the first edition of 1898 was arranged by Churchill's uncle while the author was still in India, resulting in numerous spelling and detail errors. Churchill was incensed by the errors and acted with haste to address them. Hence later states of the first edition bear errata slips. In part because of the errors in the first edition which so vexed Churchill, the publisher also issued a second edition less than a year after the first in January 1899. This Silver Library edition was the first to incorporate the author's corrections in the text, making this an important and highly collectable edition. Unfortunately, the maroon boards proved highly susceptible to fading and wear, the paper easily browned and became brittle, and the binding often cracked. Here is the first Silver Library edition, first printing - one of just 1,440 copies. This is a very good copy, suitable for collectors. The maroon binding is square and tight with good shelf presentation. The spine retains strong color, having been spared the usual sunning. We note light overall wear to spine ends, corners, and hinges. The contents remain bright and clean for the edition, with age-toning substantially limited to the perimeter of the pages. We find no spotting. All maps are intact, as are the frontispiece and original tissue guard and the original, distinctive swan and ship endpapers. A single previous owner name and date of "Dec 4th. / 01" is inked on the front free endpaper. Bibliographic reference: Cohen A1.3.a, Woods/ICS A1(ba.1), Langworth p.20.
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$760.00 + shipping
Description: This is the first printing of the Silver Library edition of Churchill's first book. The Story of the Malakand Field Force recounts Churchill's experiences while attached to Sir Bindon Blood's punitive expedition on the Northwest Frontier of India in 1897. Publication of the first edition of 1898 was arranged by Churchill's uncle while the author was still in India, resulting in numerous spelling and detail errors. Churchill was incensed by the errors and acted with haste to address them. Hence later states of the first edition bear errata slips. In part because of the errors in the first edition which so vexed Churchill, the publisher also issued a second edition less than a year after the first in January 1899. This Silver Library edition was the first to incorporate the author's corrections in the text, making this an important and highly collectable edition. Unfortunately, the maroon boards proved highly susceptible to fading and wear, the paper easily browned and became brittle, and the binding often cracked. This first Silver Library edition, first printing - one of just 1,440 copies is in very good condition. Shelf presentation is superior for the edition; the spine retains particularly strong color and bright gilt with almost no discernible color shift between the covers and spine a rarity. The binding is square and tight, showing modest overall mottling of the color and light wear to extremities. The contents remain comparatively bright for the edition, the age-toning light for the edition. The distinctive swan and ship endpapers are intact, as are the frontispiece, tissue guard, and maps. Spotting is light within, primarily confined to the prelims and page edges. The sole previous ownership mark is an inked owner name dated "1899." on the front free endpaper verso. When this book was written and published, Churchill was a young cavalry officer still serving in India. While he had successfully applied his pen as a war correspondent - indeed the book is based on his dispatches to the Daily Telegraph and the Pioneer Mail - this was his first book-length work. The young Churchill was motivated by a combination of pique and ambition. He was vexed that his Daily Telegraph columns were to be published unsigned. On 25 October 1897 Churchill wrote to his mother: ".I had written them with the design. of bringing my personality before the electorate." Two weeks later, his resolve to write a book firming, Churchill again wrote to his mother: ".It is a great undertaking but if carried out will yield substantial results in every way, financially, politically, and even, though do I care a damn, militarily." Having invested his ambition in this first book, he clearly labored over it: "I have discovered a great power of application which I did not think I possessed. For two months I have worked not less than five hours a day." The finished manuscript was sent to his mother on the last day of 1897 and published on 14 March of 1898. Bibliographic reference: Cohen A1.3.a, Woods/ICS A1(ba.1), Langworth p.20.
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$768.52 + shipping
Description: First printing of the "Silver Library Edition", the second overall, of Churchill's first book, first published the previous year in a garbled edition, here much corrected, and with a new preface. Churchill was correspondent for the Daily Telegraph on Sir Bindon Blood's punitive 1897 expedition against the Afghan tribesmen of the north-west frontier, during which he "took part in several skirmishes in which he came under fire and witnessed acts of barbarism by both sides" (ODNB). He consolidated his reports into book-form on his return to Bangalore, and his account was published in March 1898. However, as Churchill was still in India the checking of the proofs, as he recalled in his memoir, was undertaken "by an uncle of mine [Moreton Frewin], a very brilliant man and himself a ready writer. For some reason or other he missed many scores of misprints and made no attempt to organise the punctuation" (Churchill, My Early Life). Nonetheless, the book was successful. One reader unstinting in his praise was the prime minister, Lord Salisbury, who called Churchill for a personal interview and expressed his "admiration not only for its matter but for its style" and thought it a "truer picture" of events than any other documents he had read. The reception of Malakand was key in convincing Churchill that he could live by the pen, as well as by the sword. This second edition was called for, allowing Churchill to correct the text back to his original intention. "We collect first editions to get as close as possible to the author's original expression; in the case of Churchill's first book, the first edition was irrevocably altered by Moreton Frewin's proofreading. It is the second edition which conveys the text as Churchill wished it to read from the start" (Langworth, p. 23). Cohen A1.3.a; Woods A1(b). Richard M. Langworth, A Connoisseur's Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill, 1998. Small octavo. Original plum buckram, spine lettered in gilt, broad single fillet panel to front cover, decorated endpapers. Portrait frontispiece of Sir Bindon Blood (with tissue guard), 2 folding coloured maps, and 4 full-page. Ownership signature to front free endpaper, bookseller's blindstamp to front free endpaper. Spine lightly sunned with minor rubbing at ends, contents somewhat toned and foxed as usual; a very good copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Price: US$950.00 + shipping
Description: This is the first printing of the Silver Library edition of Churchill's first book. The Story of the Malakand Field Force recounts Churchill's experiences while attached to Sir Bindon Blood's punitive expedition on the Northwest Frontier of India in 1897. Publication of the first edition of 1898 was arranged by Churchill's uncle while the author was still in India, resulting in numerous spelling and detail errors. Churchill was incensed by the errors and acted with haste to address them. Hence later states of the first edition bear errata slips. In part because of the errors in the first edition which so vexed Churchill, the publisher also issued a second edition less than a year after the first in January 1899. This Silver Library edition was the first to incorporate the author's corrections in the text, making this an important and highly collectable edition. Unfortunately, the maroon boards proved highly susceptible to fading and wear, the paper easily browned and became brittle, and the binding often cracked. This first Silver Library edition, first printing - one of just 1,440 copies is in very good plus condition. Shelf presentation is superior for the edition; the spine retains particularly strong color and bright gilt with almost no discernible color shift between the covers and spine. The binding is square and tight, showing none of the typical mottling and only light wear to extremities and incidental surface scuffing to the boards. The contents remain comparatively bright for the edition, the age-toning fairly light. We find no spotting. The distinctive swan and ship endpapers are intact, as are the frontispiece, tissue guard, and maps. The sole previous ownership mark is a tiny booksellers sticker (Leamington, England) affixed to the lower front pastedown. When The Story of the Malakand Field Force was written and published, Churchill was a young cavalry officer still serving in India. While he had successfully applied his pen as a war correspondent - indeed the book is based on his dispatches to the Daily Telegraph and the Pioneer Mail - this was his first book-length work. The young Churchill was motivated by a combination of pique and ambition. He was vexed that his Daily Telegraph columns were to be published unsigned. On 25 October 1897 Churchill wrote to his mother: ".I had written them with the design. of bringing my personality before the electorate." Two weeks later, his resolve to write a book firming, Churchill again wrote to his mother: ".It is a great undertaking but if carried out will yield substantial results in every way, financially, politically, and even, though do I care a damn, militarily." Having invested his ambition in this first book, he clearly labored over it: "I have discovered a great power of application which I did not think I possessed. For two months I have worked not less than five hours a day." The finished manuscript was sent to his mother on the last day of 1897 and published on 14 March of 1898. Bibliographic reference: Cohen A1.3.a, Woods/ICS A1(ba.1), Langworth p.20.
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: This is the first printing of the Silver Library edition of Churchill's first book. The Story of the Malakand Field Force recounts Churchill's experiences while attached to Sir Bindon Blood's punitive expedition on the Northwest Frontier of India in 1897. Publication of the first edition of 1898 was arranged by Churchill's uncle while the author was still in India, resulting in numerous spelling and detail errors. Churchill was incensed by the errors and acted with haste to address them. Hence later states of the first edition bear errata slips. In part because of the errors in the first edition which so vexed Churchill, the publisher also issued a second edition less than a year after the first in January 1899. This Silver Library edition was the first to incorporate the author's corrections in the text, making this an important and highly collectable edition. Unfortunately, the maroon boards proved highly susceptible to fading and wear, the paper easily browned and became brittle, and the binding often cracked. This first Silver Library edition, first printing - one of just 1,440 copies is in better than very good condition. The binding is clean and tight with sharp corners and only light shelf wear to extremities. Shelf presentation is quite good, the cloth showing only the slightest, uniform toning and a trivial forward lean. The contents are unusually bright for the edition, with the customary age-toning only apparent at the perimeter blank margins of the pages. Even the page edges are atypically clean. We find no previous ownership marks. A hint of spotting appears confined to the prelims. The distinctive swan and ship endpapers are intact, as are the frontispiece, tissue guard, and maps. We note minor creasing to the upper corners spanning the dedication through p.8 and some wrinkling of the frontispiece tissue guard. When The Story of the Malakand Field Force was written and published, Churchill was a young cavalry officer still serving in India. While he had successfully applied his pen as a war correspondent - indeed the book is based on his dispatches to the Daily Telegraph and the Pioneer Mail - this was his first book-length work. The young Churchill was motivated by a combination of pique and ambition. He was vexed that his Daily Telegraph columns were to be published unsigned. On 25 October 1897 Churchill wrote to his mother: ".I had written them with the design. of bringing my personality before the electorate." Two weeks later, his resolve to write a book firming, Churchill again wrote to his mother: ".It is a great undertaking but if carried out will yield substantial results in every way, financially, politically, and even, though do I care a damn, militarily." Having invested his ambition in this first book, he clearly labored over it: "I have discovered a great power of application which I did not think I possessed. For two months I have worked not less than five hours a day." The finished manuscript was sent to his mother on the last day of 1897 and published on 14 March of 1898. Dozens of books would follow this first over the next six decades, helping Churchill earn his livelihood, his place in history, and a Nobel Prize in Literature. Reference: Cohen A1.3.a, Woods/ICS A1(ba.1), Langworth p.20.
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$3650.46 + shipping
Description: First edition. Second state: tipped in errata slip; publishers' catalogue undated. Octavo. pp xvi, 336. Tissue-guarded frontispiece photograph of Major-General Sir Bindon Blood; 6 maps two of which are folding. 32-page publishers' catalogue at rear. Green cloth gilt. The author's first book.Traces of label removal on front cover. Tail of spine slightly bumped. Very good indeed.
Seller: Peter Ellis, Bookseller, ABA, ILAB, London, United Kingdom
Price: US$5500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: This is a beautiful copy of the Second Colonial Library edition, bound in a vivid blue-green cloth fascinatingly different from the standard Colonial Library gray-green cloth. The Second Colonial Library edition was bound from "Silver Library" sheets for export to the colonies. Only 360 copies of this printing were bound in cloth, according to bibliographer Ronald Cohen (another 130 were bound in softcover). "Intended for circulation only in India and the British colonies," Colonial Library volumes did not generally fare well, due to the colonies' harsher climate conditions. This survivor is quite the exception. The blue stamping on the green cloth clovers is bright, the covers are clean, the spine is only modestly faded and the gilt lettering only modestly dulled. The binding is square and tight, with very faint fraying to the spine head. The title page has been archivally re-attached, the paper is somewhat browned with age but unfoxed. The contents are otherwise fine. A striking, early rarity. Second Colonial Library Edition (First Printing ?New Edition?) [1 of 360 copies] (Cohen A1.4.a) (Woods A1ab). 8vo (337 pages, with frontis portrait and 6 maps, including 2 fold-out in color.)
Seller: CHARTWELL BOOKSELLERS, NEW YORK, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$11500.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Churchill, Winston S. The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1899. Edited by Col. F. Rhodes, D.S.O. Illustrated by Agnus McNeill, Seaforth Highlanders. Two Volume Set. First Edition Printing. Rebound in full navy leather with gilt tooling and facsimile gilt signature embossed to front boards, raised bands, gilt titles, and gilt tooling to the spine, and new marbled end paper. Presented with a custom navy cloth archival slipcase. This is a first edition printing of The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan by Winston S. Churchill. The two volume set was published in London in 1899 by Longmans Green, and Co. It was edited by Col. F. Rhodes, D.S.O, and illustrated by Agnus McNeill. The book is presented rebound, in stunning full navy leather boards with gilt borders and Churchill s facsimile gilt signature embossed on the front. The spines boast raised bands, gilt titles, and gilt tooling, and the inside has new marbled end paper. The two volumes are protected with a custom navy cloth archival slipcase. The front of the slipcase is inset with the original cloth and gilt stamped front of Vol I, with a river boat scene, the book s title, and Churchill s name. The River War tells the story of Britain s campaign to reconquer Sudan at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1885, Sudanese Dervishes rebelled against foreign rule and killed Britain s envoy Charles Gordon at his palace in Khartoum. Herbert Kitchener s Anglo-Egyptian army, advancing hundreds of miles south along the Nile through the Sahara Desert, defeated the Dervish army at the battle of Omdurman on September 2, 1898. Churchill charged with the 21st Lancers in the most dangerous fighting against the Dervish host. After the battle Churchill began writing his full account of the campaign, built on a foundation of fifteen previous newspaper articles and dispatches written while in action. He even resigned from the army to be free to write the book as he pleased, without fearing how it would be received by his commanding officer. Just a year later, in November of 1899, The River War was published. It was issued in two massive volumes, my magnum opus (up to date), upon which I had lavished a whole year of my life, as Churchill recalled later in his autobiography. The book had twenty-six chapters, five appendixes, dozens of illustrations, and colored maps. A relatively small print run, there were only 2,000 copies of this first edition, first printing. The young author was noticeably even-handed in his account. He gave Kitchener credit for his victory but found much to criticize in his campaign. He showed sympathy for the founder of the rebellion, Muhammad Ahmed, and for his successor the Khalifa Abdullahi, whom Kitchener had defeated. Churchill also discusses how the war in northeast Africa affected British politics in Britain, fit into the geopolitical rivalry between Britain and France, and abruptly thrust the vast Sudan, with the largest territory in Africa, into an uncertain future in Britain s orbit. His two volume work was later shortened in 1902 to fit into one volume. Seven whole chapters, and parts of every other chapter, disappeared in this 1902 abridgment. Many maps and most illustrations were also dropped. The original two-volume book was never published again, making this scarce two first edition printing even more collectible. CONDITION: Very good condition overall. Two volume set. Handsomely rebound in full navy leather with gilt tooling and facsimile gilt signature embossed to front boards, raised bands, gilt titles, and gilt tooling to the spine, and new marbled end paper. Presented with a custom navy cloth archival slipcase, inset with front gilt-stamped cloth from Vol I s original binding. Interior pages are in generally good condition. A few pencil marks and scattered light foxing throughout, as expected with age and past use. Illustrated throughout w
Seller: The Great Republic, Colorado Springs, CO, U.S.A.