THE STORY OF THE MALAKAND FIELD FORCE
-First Edition of Churchill's First Book-
1898
First English Edition [1 of 2,000 copies]
Longmans, Green, & Co. Ltd. [London ]
Biblio: (Cohen A1.1.a) (Woods A1a)
8vo (352 pages, 6 maps, illustrations, tissue-guarded frontis portrait. With 32-page rear catalogue dated 12/97)
Hardcover [Apple-green cloth]
Item Number: 210015
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Collector's Guide
The Story of the Malakand Field Force was Winston Churchill’s first book, a chronicle of true-life military adventures drawn from newspaper dispatches filed by the then-22-year-old correspondent while serving on India’s Afghanistan-bordering Northwest Frontier under Major-General Sir Bindon Blood. Wrenching to read how little has changed in this region since Churchill’s time. The First Edition is easily distinguished by its apple-green cloth binding but Malakand is prized by collectors in almost any edition.
Description
This is a very attractive copy of the First State of the First English edition. The rear publisher’s catalogue is dated 12/97 and there is no Errata slip.
The cloth is fresh and only modestly and evenly faded, including the spine, which is physically robust and unruffled. The binding is crisp and the corners are sharp, if a touch turned. There is a very faint dent in the lower edge of the front and rear boards and a similarly faint scratch in the front face. The contents are fine and unfoxed, with the frontis photo tissue guard present and not browned or tanned. All maps are present and correctly folded, with some transfer at Page 1. The title page and dedication page are uncut.
The book is preserved in a gorgeous rose quarter-calf cloth solander, the spine gilt-tooled in five compartments with raised bands.