London to Ladysmith via Pretoria
by Winston S. Churchill
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
San Diego, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Toronto: The Copp, Clark Company, Ltd., 1900. First Canadian edition. Hardcover. This is the Canadian first edition of Churchill's fourth published book. Both U.S. and Canadian editions were published in June 1900. The Canadian is the scarcest of the three English-language first editions. This Canadian edition was bound in tan cloth with an illustrated front cover like its British counterpart, and is easily distinguishable by a red fleur-de-lis on the spine, thinner binding, and black title and author print. The attractive binding is prone to both hinge breaks and severe spine toning.
Here is a respectable and sound ex-library copy. The binding is clean, tight, and square, with only modest shelf wear to extremities and mild spine toning. Nonetheless, there is a whitish rectangle below the author's name on the spine, ostensibly from removal of a library label, library number stamps on both pastedowns, the half title, and the title page, scarring from library pocket removal on the rear pastedown and facing final free endpaper verso, and the front free endpaper has been excised, only the stub remaining. A previous owner name and date of "Xmas 1901" is written in pencil on the lower half title recto. Apart from the ex-library marks, the contents are notably clean, with no spotting, intact maps, and modest soiling and toning confined to the page edges.
London to Ladysmith via Pretoria is the first of Churchill's two books based on his newspaper despatches sent from the front in South Africa. In October 1899, the second Boer War erupted between the descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa and the British. Churchill, an itinerant, adventure-seeking young cavalry officer and war correspondent, swiftly found himself in South Africa with the 21st Lancers and an assignment as press correspondent to the Morning Post. Not long thereafter, on 15 November 1899, Churchill was captured during a Boer ambush of an armored train. His daring and dramatic escape less than a month later made him a celebrity and helped launch his political career.
London to Ladysmith via Pretoria contains 27 letters and telegrams to the Morning Post written between 26 October 1899 and 10 March 1900. It was published in England in mid-May 1900 and sold well. Churchill returned from South Africa in July 1900 and spent the summer campaigning hard in Oldham. Churchill had lost the Oldham by-election his first attempt at Parliament in July 1899. Since then, as Arthur Balfour (who became Prime Minister in 1902) put it in a 30 August 1900 letter, the young Churchill had had fresh opportunities - admirably taken advantage of for shewing the public of what stuff you are made. Indeed; Churchill won his first seat in Parliament on 1 October 1900 in the so-called "khaki election".
Reference: Cohen A4.3.a, Woods/ICS A4(bb), Langworth p.56.
Here is a respectable and sound ex-library copy. The binding is clean, tight, and square, with only modest shelf wear to extremities and mild spine toning. Nonetheless, there is a whitish rectangle below the author's name on the spine, ostensibly from removal of a library label, library number stamps on both pastedowns, the half title, and the title page, scarring from library pocket removal on the rear pastedown and facing final free endpaper verso, and the front free endpaper has been excised, only the stub remaining. A previous owner name and date of "Xmas 1901" is written in pencil on the lower half title recto. Apart from the ex-library marks, the contents are notably clean, with no spotting, intact maps, and modest soiling and toning confined to the page edges.
London to Ladysmith via Pretoria is the first of Churchill's two books based on his newspaper despatches sent from the front in South Africa. In October 1899, the second Boer War erupted between the descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa and the British. Churchill, an itinerant, adventure-seeking young cavalry officer and war correspondent, swiftly found himself in South Africa with the 21st Lancers and an assignment as press correspondent to the Morning Post. Not long thereafter, on 15 November 1899, Churchill was captured during a Boer ambush of an armored train. His daring and dramatic escape less than a month later made him a celebrity and helped launch his political career.
London to Ladysmith via Pretoria contains 27 letters and telegrams to the Morning Post written between 26 October 1899 and 10 March 1900. It was published in England in mid-May 1900 and sold well. Churchill returned from South Africa in July 1900 and spent the summer campaigning hard in Oldham. Churchill had lost the Oldham by-election his first attempt at Parliament in July 1899. Since then, as Arthur Balfour (who became Prime Minister in 1902) put it in a 30 August 1900 letter, the young Churchill had had fresh opportunities - admirably taken advantage of for shewing the public of what stuff you are made. Indeed; Churchill won his first seat in Parliament on 1 October 1900 in the so-called "khaki election".
Reference: Cohen A4.3.a, Woods/ICS A4(bb), Langworth p.56.
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Details
- Seller
- Churchill Book Collector (US)
- Seller's Inventory #
- 007534
- Title
- London to Ladysmith via Pretoria
- Author
- Winston S. Churchill
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Canadian edition
- Publisher
- The Copp, Clark Company, Ltd.
- Place of Publication
- Toronto
- Date Published
- 1900
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:
- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Half Title
- The blank front page which appears just prior to the title page, and typically contains only the title of the book, although, at...
- Hinge
- The portion of the book closest to the spine that allows the book to be opened and closed.
- 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...
- 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...
- 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....
- Verso
- The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
- Recto
- The page on the right side of a book, with the term Verso used to describe the page on the left side.
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.