THE STORY OF THE MALAKAND FIELD FORCE
-Rebound Second Colonial Library Edition-
1899
Second Colonial Library Edition (First Printing) [1 of 360 copies]
Longman’s Green & Co. [London]
Biblio: (Cohen A1.4.a)(Woods A1ab)
8vo (337 pages, with frontis portrait and 6 maps (including 2 fold-out in color.)
Hardcover [Burgundy cloth]
Item Number: 14214
$1,750.00
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 the Second Edition (First printing) of the Colonial Library issue, which was bound from “Silver Library” sheets for export to the colonies. Only 360 copies of this printing were issued in cloth, according to bibliographer Ronald Cohen (another 130 were bound in softcover). The harsher climate conditions in the colonies generally resulted in low survival rates for these volumes. This copy was preserved by virtue of an elegant burgundy cloth rebinding over marbled boards. The title page reads: “New Edition” with the “1898” publication date. The contents are tight, with the frontispiece tissue guard present. There is mild scattered foxing throughout and a single discreet inked notation: “1897 July” in the margin of page 49. Else fine.