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CHURCHILL, Winston L[eonard]. Spencer.
The Story of the Malakand Field Force
An Episode of Frontier War ... With maps, plans, etc.
First edition, home issue, only printing, first state, of Churchill's first book, this copy without the errata slip at p. 1, catalogue dated 12/97, but apparently in the variant cloth which Cohen states "should only be present on second-state copies." Relates his exploits with the Malakand Field Force, led by Sir Bindon Blood, on the Northwest Frontier of India in 1897. Based on Churchill's despatches to the Daily Telegraph and the Pioneer Mail, and, as Churchill was still in India, the final editing was undertaken by Moreton Frewen, Churchill's uncle, husband of Clara Jerome, Jennie's elder sister, resulting in numerous small errors which were corrected the following year in the Silver Library edition. Churchill had a clear purpose in writing these pieces, as he wrote to his mother, "I had written them with a design, a design which took form as the correspondence advanced, of bringing my personality before the electorate. I had hoped that some political advantage might have accrued … I do not think that I have ever written anything better".
Octavo, original green cloth with a pronounced white graining, spine lettered in gilt, upper cover with panel in blind lettered gilt, black endpapers. Frontispiece portrait and 6 maps, 4 of them folding and coloured, 4 full-page. Spine slightly mottled, head a little pulled, the tail mildly crumpled, corners bumped, overall just a touch rubbed, the hinges tight, half-title browned as often, foxing to the edges, but just a light scatter to the text, a very good copy.
