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THE RIVER WAR: A Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan
-First Edition Set in Rare Leather Binding-
1899
First English Edition Set (First Printing) [1 of 2,003 produced]
Longmans, Green, & Co. Ltd. [London]
Biblio: (Cohen A2.1.a) (Woods A2a)
8vo (488 pages and 516 pages, profusely illustrated with drawings, 11 folding color maps, other maps & plans.)
Hardcover [Green leather]
Item Number: 209952
Collector's Guide
The River War was Winston Churchill’s second book, a brilliant history of British involvement in the Sudan and an account of the fierce campaign for its reconquest that Churchill himself participated in and, in many significant ways, disapproved of. Originally published in two large, lavish and, today, extremely rare volumes, THE RIVER WAR was abridged by Churchill himself for a 1902 one-volume edition. All subsequent editions have been versions of Churchill’s abridgement.
Description
An extravagantly ornate leatherbound First English edition set bound by the illustrious, and today little remembered, turn-of-the-century, New York City-based master binder Frank J. Pfister and his bindery Pfister Co. The full-green leather binding has faded to brown on the spines, which are elaborately gilt-tooled in six compartments with raised bands and a repeating motif of a crossed musket and spear. The endpapers are marbled and trimmed with further ornate gilt tooling. The upper fore-edge is also gilded. The contents are fine, with all maps and tissue guards present and just a touch of age-staining to the prelims from the frontis photo. A beautiful set and a highly collectible binding.