MY AFRICAN JOURNEY
-First American Edition (First Issue)-
1909
First American Edition (First Issue)
George H. Doran [NY]
Biblio: (Cohen A27.4) (Woods A12ab)
8vo (242 pages, with 60 photographs, 3 maps, tissue protected frontis photo.)
Hardcover (with Dust Jacket) [Reddish-Brown cloth]
Item Number: 14244
$1,000.00
Collector's Guide
My African Journey is Winston Churchill’s travelogue account of his whirlwind tour of Britain’s East-Africa territories as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies; his first official government office. The book features eloquent and perceptive observations about Africa, and much big-game hunting, with young Churchill as guide. The first English edition is particularly coveted for its handsome cover woodcut of the author posed beside a trophy rhinoceros. The more plainly-bound American edition, which utilized English first edition sheets, has no woodcut on its brownish-red buckram cover, yet it is the rarer volume.
Description
This is a very good copy of the rare First American edition, First Issue, according to bibliographer Ronald Cohen, with a title page that states: “Hodder & Stoughton, London.”
The book is tight and the cloth only moderately worn, with the usual uneven fading. The spine has faded further but the gilt remains bright. The contents are fine and virtually unfoxed, with some tanning to the endpapers and pastedowns and a discreet former-owner’s bookplate on the front pastedown.