SAVROLA
-First Colonial Library Hardcover Edition-
1900
First Colonial Library Edition
Longmans, Green & Co. [London, New York and Bombay]
Biblio: (Cohen A3.3.a) (Woods A3bb)
8vo (356 pages)
Hardcover [Blackish-blue on greenish grey cloth]
Item Number: 14230
$4,500.00
Collector's Guide
Savrola was Winston Churchill’s first and only novel; a statement of personal and political philosophy delivered as a work of dystopian fiction about dictatorship (with an astonishing relevance to our own dire present moment in time). U.S. publication preceded the British issue by roughly ten days, rendering the American first edition the true first.
Description
This First Printing of the Colonial Libray edition, “Intended for circulation only in India and the British colonies,” is significantly rarer than either the American or English first editions of SAVROLA. Bibliographer Ronald Cohen states that no more than 1,500 Colonial Library SAVROLAs were produced for both the hardcover and softcover issues combined. Moreover, the survival rate for these editions was quite poor, due to colonial climate conditions. Here, then, is a miraculous survivor — an original, unrestored Colonial Library First edition in its original decorated cloth binding, retaining its original decorated endpapers.
The cloth is virtually free of wear, with excellent color, though there is a faint reddish tinge to the rear face, no doubt picked up from an adjacently shelved book. The spine is physically fresh and only moderately faded, with very bright gilt type. The binding is extraordinarily tight, the contents are clean and unfoxed.
Truly unique thus.