Churchill, Winston

The Story of the Malakand Field Force

ISBN: 0393028143
New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1990. First American Edition. Hardcover. "The Story of the Malakand Field Force, Winston Churchill's first book, was originally published in 1898. The author was at the time a subaltern in the 4th Hussars but, finding regimental life too quiet to satisfy his adventurous spirit and hearing that a field force of three brigades was being formed under General Sir Bindon Blood to quell a revolt of the Pathan tribesmen on the Northwest Frontier, he at once telegraphed to the general reminding him of a promise he had made a year earlier that if ever he commanded another expedition on the Indian Frontier he would let Churchill go with him." (from front flap) The first published work of Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), the legendary, larger-than-life British Statesman & very prolific author who would go on to become one of the foremost figures of the twentieth century, especially in his Heroic role in the Second World War. Churchill, then only in his early twenties, relates his adventures as a correspondent & combatant under the leadership of the ever-so-appropriately named General Blood, in British Colonial India during the late nineteenth century. Offered here is the first American edition, posthumously published nearly a century later. Hardcover in unclipped first-issue dust jacket (with $18.95 price & "11-89" printed on front flap), "First American Edition 1990" as stated on copyright page, first printing as indicated by number sequence thereon. With a scholarly foreword by Tom Hartman, & several maps. A foundational collectible in the vast & canonical Churchill oeuvre. Book in fine-verging-on-very-fine condition with only a touch of wear & a few tiny bumps at edges & corners of blue cloth front, back covers & spine; mild spotting to lower edge of text block; more pronounced at side & esp. upper edge of same. Interior fine-to-very-fine with name, date & location of previous owner in cursive blue ink at upper right margin of blank front endpaper; otherwise substantially mint. Dust jacket very fine with only a touch of rubbing, faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; a bit of wear & a few tiny bumps, creases at thin edges & corners of same & flaps; very light browning mostly to upper margins of flaps. Fine- Very Fine / Very Fine. [Item #5234]

Price: $50.00