My African Journey, finely bound in full red Morocco by Bayntun-Riviere.
London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1908. First edition, only printing. Full leather. This is a magnificent, finely-bound first edition, only printing of My African Journey, Winston S. Churchill's travelogue on Britain's possessions in East Africa, written while he was serving as Undersecretary of State for the Colonies. The first edition is notable, among other things, for being the only one of his many books to contain photographs apparently taken by the author.
This copy is a compellingly handsome example of the fine binder’s craft, in full red Morocco by Bayntun-Rivière. The binding features a hubbed spine with gilt-ruled compartments, gilt-decorated bands, and gilt-hatched spine ends. The spine features the title and author in the second and third compartments with the publication date at the heel. The first, fourth, fifth, and sixth compartments each feature a gilt lion rampant. The covers feature gilt rule borders and gilt-decorated edges, the front cover gilt-stamped with Churchill’s facsimile signature. The contents are bound with all edges gilt, red and gold silk head and tail bands, and combed pattern marbled endpapers framed by generous, double gilt-ruled turn-ins with decorative corner devices.
“BOUND BY BAYNTUN RIVIERE. BATH. ENGLAND.” is gilt-stamped on the lower front pastedown turn-in. In 1939, the year the Second World War began, the firm of George Bayntun acquired the Rivière Bindery. The Bindery has been in residence on Manvers Street in Bath ever since.
Condition of the binding is fine, with no toning, soiling, blemishes, or appreciable wear. The exceptional contents are well suited to the binding, bright, clean, and complete. The 61 photographs of this edition were tipped in rather than bound, so often go missing. All illustrations and maps are present, as is the frontispiece and tissue guard. Spotting proved endemic to this edition. Here we find no spotting, soiling, or previous ownership marks. Toning is confined to the perimeter of the half title, offsetting corresponding to the front pastedown turn-ins. This copy was bound with the publisher’s original advertisements following the text, after which is bound in the publisher’s original illustrated front cover, bearing a woodcut illustration in blue, grey, and black of Churchill with his bagged white rhinoceros.
In the summer of 1907 Churchill left England for five months, making his way after working stops in southern Europe to Africa for "a tour of the east African domains." Churchill enjoyed a proper 19th Century bwana experience, traveling by special train provided by the Uganda Railway, receiving tribute from various chiefs, and shooting all manner of things. On 6 November Churchill wrote to his mother that at Simba "the first day I killed I Zebra, I wildebeeste, two hartebeeste, I gazelle, I bustard (a giant bird)." On the third day Churchill would kill a rhinoceros, the basis of the striking illustration on the front cover of the British first edition of his eventual book. Happily, there are more insightful and enduringly interesting experiences recounted in the book than just a catalogue of culled fauna.
From Aden and then to Mombassa, Churchill traveled up-country. Churchill's trip included stops at Nairobi, Lake Victoria, Kampala, the Ripon Falls, Gondokoro, and, after a journey by both train and steamer, Khartoum, followed by Wadi Halfa, Aswan, Cairo, and thence home.
By now a seasoned and financially shrewd author, Churchill arranged to profit doubly from the trip, first by serializing articles and then by publishing a book based substantially upon them. Nine articles on his African journey were published in Strand Magazine from March to November 1908. In November 1908 Hodder and Stoughton published My African Journey as a book. While Churchill's Strand articles make up the bulk of the book, the last two chapters plus an additional paragraph in Chapter X did not appear in Strand and the book is a substantial 10,000 words longer than the serialized articles.
Reference: Cohen A27.1, Woods/ICS A12(aa), Langworth p.81. Item #008302
Price: $2,500.00