The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War.
London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1899. Second edition, Colonial Library issue, first printing. Hardcover. One of only 360 copies bound thus, this is a Colonial Library issue of Churchill's first book, the January 1899 first printing of the second, “Silver Library” edition. Colonial editions were produced in small numbers simultaneously with the first edition of 1898 and the second, “Silver Library” edition of 1899. Harsher climates and living conditions in the colonies meant low survival rates - and often poor condition for the few survivors. Complicating matters for collectors, there were no fewer than 10 different editions, printings, and binding variations for the modest number of Colonial issues produced from 1898 to 1901.
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 with errata slips that were included in later states of the first edition. 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 collectable edition.
Only 360 copies of this first Silver Library edition were issued as hardcover colonial editions, bound in the distinctive colonial edition cloth binding. Here is one of these 360, noteworthy not just merely for surviving, but for being surprisingly presentable and well preserved. This copy is in very good condition, sound, complete, and unrestored. The distinctive colonial cloth binding is square, clean, bright, and tight, with only minor shelf wear confined to extremities. The hallmark illustrated front cover shows only trivial scuffing, remaining quite bright and clear. Shelf presentation is noteworthy, the greenish-gray cloth barely toned, the gilt print still vividly bright. The blank rear cover is surprisingly clean, with just a few blemishes, including some tiny blisters to the cloth, which are visible on both covers adjacent to the joint. The contents remain bright, with only mild age-toning, mostly confined to the page edges. A single previous owner name, ostensibly contemporary, appears in faded ink on the upper right front free endpaper recto. The chief defect is spotting, heavier to the initial and terminal leaves and text block edges, only intermittent throughout the rest of the text and mostly confined to the blank inner margins.
While Churchill 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. He clearly labored over it, writing to his mother: "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 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."
Less than two years after this first printing of the Silver Library edition was issued, Churchill was elected to Parliament for the first time. Churchill's political career would last two thirds of a century, see him occupy Cabinet office during each of the first six decades of the twentieth century, carry him twice to the premiership and, further still, into the annals of history as a preeminent statesman. All lay still ahead of Churchill when this copy was published.
Reference: Cohen A1.4.a, Woods/ICS A1(bb.1), Langworth p.19. Item #008267
Price: $1,750.00