This Item Has Been Sold
LONDON TO LADYSMITH (VIA PRETORIA)
-First English Edition-
1900
First English Edition [1 of 10,000 copies]
Longmans, Green, & Co. Ltd. [London]
Biblio: (Cohen A4.1.a) (Woods A4a)
8vo (516 pages with 3 folding maps, 5 other plans and maps, 32-page rear publisher’s catalogue.)
Hardcover [Fawn pictorial cloth]
Item Number: 209852
Collector's Guide
London to Ladysmith was the first of two Boer War volumes derived from Winston Churchill’s newspaper dispatches as a war correspondent in South Africa. It features a thrilling account of his escape from the Boers, an escape that would help launch young Churchill’s political career. The First English edition was published elaborately in fawn-colored cloth stamped with a striking cover illustration of the infamous armored train that Churchill was defending when he was captured. The American edition is an unadorned, though still handsome, red cloth binding with gilt lettering.
Description
This is a very good copy of the First English edition, with bright cover art and cloth that has moderately and uniformly darkened with age. The binding is crisp and especially square and tight. The corners are sharp. The spine is somewhat sunned but far less than usual with this book, unfrayed, and just a touch less than rounded, with a tiny rub along the lower right joint. The spine typography has faded but not inordinately.
The contents are virtually unfoxed and fine, with a discreet vintage bookplate on the front pastedown. The folding maps are not only complete and correctly folded, they appear never to have been opened.
A truly attractive copy, preserved in a handsome but timeworn green cloth solander with an inner card chemise and ornately gilt-tooled leather spine that has faded with age to brown.