The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War
$1,000 · Offered by Biblio
London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1899. Hardcover. This is the first printing of the Silver Library edition of Churchill's first book. The Story of the Malakand Field Force recounts Churchill's experiences while attached to Sir Bindon Blood's punitive expedition on the Northwest Frontier of India in 1897. Publication of the first edition of 1898 was arranged by Churchill's uncle while the author was still in India, resulting in numerous spelling and detail errors. Churchill was incensed by the errors and acted with haste to address them. Hence later states of the first edition bear errata slips. In part because of the errors in the first edition which so vexed Churchill, the publisher also issued a second edition less than a year after the first in January 1899. This Silver Library edition was the first to incorporate the author's corrections in the text, making this an important and highly collectable edition. Unfortunately, the maroon boards proved highly susceptible to fading and wear, the paper easily browned and became brittle, and the binding often cracked. This first Silver Library edition, first printing - one of just 1,440 copies is in better than very good condition. The binding is clean and tight with sharp corners and only light shelf wear to extremities. Shelf presentation is quite good, the cloth showing only the slightest, uniform toning and a trivial forward lean. The contents are unusually bright for the edition, with the customary age-toning only apparent at
- Publisher: Longmans, Green, & Co.
- Year: 1899
- Printing: first
- Binding: hardcover
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