The River War
by Winston S. Churchill
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
San Diego, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1940. Hardcover. This collectible Second World War reprint of The River War features the elusive dust jacket. Originally published in 1899, The River War recounts Churchill's experiences and reflections concerning British involvement in the Sudan, including Churchills participation in the last great British cavalry charge. In 1933, a so-called "Second Cheap Edition" was made from plates of the 1902 edition with a bibliographically significant new introduction by the author explaining that "A generation has grown up which knows little of why we are in Egypt and the Sudan." There were ultimately five printings of this edition with at least seven different dust jackets issued (at least two for the 1933 second printing and two for the final, 1951 printing).
Of these seven dust jackets, among the most scarce is the dust jacket for this 1941 printing - the only wartime issue of this edition and featuring a jacket unique to this printing. Churchills bibliographer, Ronald Cohen, definitively asserts that the publication date was 28 February 1941, not 1940 as printed on both the title page and copyright page. This was less than 10 months after the author had become wartime prime minister. When this printing was published, the author once an itinerant cavalry officer and war correspondent during the reign of Queen Victoria was leading Britains desperate struggle to survive the early catastrophes of the Second World War, including the Battle of the Atlantic, the fall of France, the evacuation at Dunkirk, and the Battle of Britain, with both sustained aerial attacks on civilian populations and British cities, and the real prospect of Nazi invasion of England.
Survival rate for these jackets is quite low, perhaps owing in part to the thin, white paper on which they were printed. The books beneath also proved fragile, bound in a coarse, dark lilac cloth susceptible to soiling, fading, and wear, with contents prone to spotting and toning.
Here is a very good copy in a good dust jacket. The cloth binding retains unfaded color, with none of the toning typical for unjacketed copies. Light wear is confined to spine ends and corners. The contents show only a single previous owner mark - an Edinburgh address and telephone number embossed on the upper front free endpaper. Spotting is primarily confined to the page edges and prelims. The dust jacket is unclipped. Shallow losses along the top edge, as well as .75 and .5 deep losses at the top edge of the front face and a smaller loss at the lower front corner, have been patched in an amateur but serviceable fashion on the jacket verso, giving the appearance of a complete jacket. We would price this copy considerably higher were it not for these reasonably unobtrusive "repairs". The jacket shows moderate overall soiling and staining, heavier to the spine, and is protected with a clear, removable, archival cover.
In 1883, Mahdist forces of messianic leader Mohammed Ahmed overwhelmed British-led forces, precipitating British withdrawal from the Sudan. In 1885, General Gordon famously lost his life in a doomed defense of Khartoum, where he had been sent to lead evacuation of Egyptian forces. General Kitchener reoccupied the Sudan in 1898. With him was a very young Winston Churchill, who participated in the last great British cavalry charge during the battle of Omdurman in September 1898, where the Mahdist forces were decisively defeated. Writing about the British campaign in the Sudan, Churchill - a young officer in a colonial British army - is unusually sympathetic to the Mahdist forces and critical of Imperial cynicism and cruelty. This work offers us the candid perspective of the future 20th century icon from the distinctly 19th century battlefields where Churchill learned to write and earned his early fame.
Reference: Cohen A2.4.c, Woods/ICS A2(da.3), Langworth p.33
Of these seven dust jackets, among the most scarce is the dust jacket for this 1941 printing - the only wartime issue of this edition and featuring a jacket unique to this printing. Churchills bibliographer, Ronald Cohen, definitively asserts that the publication date was 28 February 1941, not 1940 as printed on both the title page and copyright page. This was less than 10 months after the author had become wartime prime minister. When this printing was published, the author once an itinerant cavalry officer and war correspondent during the reign of Queen Victoria was leading Britains desperate struggle to survive the early catastrophes of the Second World War, including the Battle of the Atlantic, the fall of France, the evacuation at Dunkirk, and the Battle of Britain, with both sustained aerial attacks on civilian populations and British cities, and the real prospect of Nazi invasion of England.
Survival rate for these jackets is quite low, perhaps owing in part to the thin, white paper on which they were printed. The books beneath also proved fragile, bound in a coarse, dark lilac cloth susceptible to soiling, fading, and wear, with contents prone to spotting and toning.
Here is a very good copy in a good dust jacket. The cloth binding retains unfaded color, with none of the toning typical for unjacketed copies. Light wear is confined to spine ends and corners. The contents show only a single previous owner mark - an Edinburgh address and telephone number embossed on the upper front free endpaper. Spotting is primarily confined to the page edges and prelims. The dust jacket is unclipped. Shallow losses along the top edge, as well as .75 and .5 deep losses at the top edge of the front face and a smaller loss at the lower front corner, have been patched in an amateur but serviceable fashion on the jacket verso, giving the appearance of a complete jacket. We would price this copy considerably higher were it not for these reasonably unobtrusive "repairs". The jacket shows moderate overall soiling and staining, heavier to the spine, and is protected with a clear, removable, archival cover.
In 1883, Mahdist forces of messianic leader Mohammed Ahmed overwhelmed British-led forces, precipitating British withdrawal from the Sudan. In 1885, General Gordon famously lost his life in a doomed defense of Khartoum, where he had been sent to lead evacuation of Egyptian forces. General Kitchener reoccupied the Sudan in 1898. With him was a very young Winston Churchill, who participated in the last great British cavalry charge during the battle of Omdurman in September 1898, where the Mahdist forces were decisively defeated. Writing about the British campaign in the Sudan, Churchill - a young officer in a colonial British army - is unusually sympathetic to the Mahdist forces and critical of Imperial cynicism and cruelty. This work offers us the candid perspective of the future 20th century icon from the distinctly 19th century battlefields where Churchill learned to write and earned his early fame.
Reference: Cohen A2.4.c, Woods/ICS A2(da.3), Langworth p.33
Synopsis
The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan is an 1899 book written by Winston Churchill while he was still an officer in the British army.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Churchill Book Collector (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 007560
- Title
- The River War
- Author
- Winston S. Churchill
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- Eyre & Spottiswoode
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1940
Terms of Sale
Churchill Book Collector
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed.
About the Seller
Churchill Book Collector
Biblio member since 2010
San Diego, California
About Churchill Book Collector
We buy and sell books by and about Sir Winston Churchill. If you seek a Churchill edition you do not find in our current online inventory, please contact us; we might be able to find it for you. We are always happy to help fellow collectors answer questions about the many editions of Churchill's many works.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Reprint
- Any printing of a book which follows the original edition. By definition, a reprint is not a first edition.
- Copyright page
- The page in a book that describes the lineage of that book, typically including the book's author, publisher, date of...
- Verso
- The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- Edges
- The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...