SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF CHURCHILL’S IMPORTANT SECOND BOOK, THE RIVER WAR

CHURCHILL, Winston. The River War, An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan. London: Longmans, Green, 1899. Two volumes. Thick octavo, modern three-quarter black morocco, raised bands. $4500.

First edition, first printing of Churchill’s scarce second book, one of only 2000 copies printed, handsomely bound.

Churchill served in the 21st Lancers during Lord Kitchener's campaign on the Upper Nile in the late 1890s and was a participant there in the last great cavalry charge of the British Army. "Hopping on a ferry, and not bothering to trouble his commanding officer in distant South India for leave, Winston turned up in the Abbasya barracks in Cairo on August 2, 1898, and joined the 21st's A Squadron. He was fully outfitted, had bought a horse, and was, most important of all, equipped with a commission from the Morning Post to send dispatches at £15 a time" (Keegan, 46). Though only in his early 20s and a mere subaltern, Churchill had already developed an independence of thought that would serve him well in his later political career: "Far from accepting uncritically the superiority of British civilization, Churchill shows his appreciation for the longing for liberty among the indigenous inhabitants of the Sudan; but he finds their native regime defective in its inadequate legal and customary protection for the liberty of subjects. On the other hand, he criticizes the British army, and in particular its commander Lord Kitchener, for departing in its campaign from the kind of civilized respect for the liberty and humanity of adversaries that alone could justify British civilization and imperial rule over the Sudan" (Langworth, 27). This account includes 34 maps, 20 of which are printed in color and folding, and 58 illustrations, including tissue-guarded frontispieces, photogravure portraits, and numerous in-text illustrations. The maps and plans include various sections of the Nile, the Dervish Empire, etc. First printing, second state, with the final quotation mark after the words LONDON GAZETTE on page 459 of Volume II. Cohen A2.1.b. Woods A2(a). Langworth, 27-30. Unobtrusive library ink stamps on title pages and plates.

Half title and frontispiece in Volume I rehinged. A handsome copy in about-fine condition.