THE STORY OF THE MALAKAND FIELD FORCE
-First Edition of Churchill's First Book in Fine Leather Binding with Tipped-In Typed Letter Signed by Churchill-
1898
First English Edition [1 of 2,000 copies]
Longmans, Green, & Co. Ltd. [London ]
Biblio: (Cohen A1.1.a) (Woods A1a)
8vo (352 pages, 6 maps, illustrations, tissue-guarded frontis portrait. With 32-page rear catalogue dated 12/97)
Leatherbound [Red leather]
Item Number: 214175
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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 fine leatherbound copy of the First State of the First English edition, with the rear publisher’s catalogue dated 12/97. Tipped-in at the second front free endpaper is a typed letter signed by Winston Churchill on 28 Hyde Park Gate notepaper, dated October 29, 1947, to H.A. Nutting, MP:
Dear Nutting,
I am asking a few of my Parliamentary colleagues to luncheon on Thursday, November 13, at 1:15 p.m., and I should be so glad if you could come.
Yours sincerely,
Winston S. Churchill [Signed in ink]
The book is in immaculate condition, rebound in full deep-red morocco by Bayntun Riviere of Bath with Churchill’s full signature in gilt on the frontis, the spine gilt-lettered in six compartments with raised bands and ornamented with Churchill rampant lion crests. The fore-edges are all gilded. The contents are fine, with marbled endpapers edged in gilt-ornamented leather. Laid-down at the rear are the book’s original apple-green cloth covers, front, rear, and spine.