THE STORY OF THE MALAKAND FIELD FORCE
-First Colonial Library Hardcover Edition-
1898
First Colonial Library Edition [1 of 1,075 copies]
Longmans Green & Co. [London]
Biblio: (Cohen A1.2.a) (Woods A1ab)
8vo (337 pages, with frontis portrait and 6 maps, including 2 fold-out in color.)
Hardcover [Blackish-blue stamping on Greenish-grey cloth]
Item Number: 212308
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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
A very good copy of the rare First Colonial Library hardcover edition, which was “intended for circulation only in India and the British colonies.” Harsher climate conditions in the colonies generally resulted in low survival rates for these volumes. This copy has weathered unusually well.
The spine has faded moderately, as per usual, but the front and rear faces retain very strong color, including Churchill’s name, rendered here for the only time as “L. W. Spencer Churchill.” (The “L” [for Leonard] was dropped on all Second Edition covers.) The binding is crisp, tight and square, with sharp corners, and the spine is beautifully well-rounded, with some ruffling at the head and tail. The contents are fine and virtually unfoxed, only scattered, light foxing to the fore-edges only.
Quite a handsome example.