The Story of the Malakand Field Force, An Episode of Frontier War.

CHURCHILL, Winston S.

$5,500.00

Item Number: 129393

London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1898.

First edition, first issue, of Winston Churchill’s first book, an account of his service with the Malakand Field Force in India, with frontispiece portrait of Sir Binden Blood and six maps, two of them folding and in color. Octavo, original cloth. In near fine condition, bookplate to the front pastedown. Uncommon in this condition.

When in the summer of 1897 a "Swati revolt threatened the British garrison holding the Malakand Pass" along the Afghanistan border, "Churchill caught the next boat to India" where he covered the events of the campaign for the Daily Telegraph (Manchester, 250). The book "was hailed as a minor classic, the debut of an exciting new talent, and… a penetrating study of Raj policy. Churchill's response to all this is curiously moving. He was 'filled with pride and pleasure… I had never been praised before'" (Manchester, 262). (Woods). Cohen A1.1.a. Woods A1(a). Langworth, 11