The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan …

[London, Spottiswoode & Co. for] London, New York, & Bombay (Mumbai), Longmans, Green, & Co., 1899.

Two vols, 8vo, I: pp. xxii, [2], 462, [2 (blank)], II: pp. [2 (blank)], x, [4], 499, [1 (blank)], with 2 photogravure frontispiece portraits, 5 further photogravure portraits (each with tissue guard), and 23 coloured maps (of which 20 folding); 61 halftone illustrations and maps (of which several full-page) printed in-text; scattered spotting throughout, short marginal tears to vol. I C2 and vol. II map 6, but a good set; bound in publisher’s navy blue cloth gilt, black endpapers; corners and endcaps slightly bumped, a little rubbed, spines slightly skewed.

£2500

Approximately:
US $3238€2977

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First edition of Churchill’s second book, a history of Lord Kitchener’s conquest of Sudan in 1896-99 informed by his own service as both a cavalry officer and a war correspondent on the campaign, profusely illustrated with drawings and maps.

Eager to make his name in an active campaign, the young Winston Churchill (1874–1965) was transferred from India to Sudan in August 1898 after an extended campaign of lobbying, including an unsuccessful enquiry to Lord Kitchener from the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, to whom the book is dedicated. While in Sudan he complemented his duties as an officer by working as a war correspondent, writing fifteen articles for the Morning Post and one, never published, for the Times.

‘Arguably the most aesthetically beautiful of original trade editions of Churchill’s books, The River War is a brilliant history of British involvement in the Sudan and the campaign for its reconquest: arresting, insightful, with tremendous narrative and descriptive power … [The] features of that now distant campaign Churchill impressively captures in precise detail and exciting narrative, including his own role in the last great cavalry charge of British history. Finely written chapters trace the history of the Sudan, the rise of the Mahdi, the martyr’s death of Gordon and, apparently not much exaggerated, the author’s adventures’ (Langworth).

Despite his undoubted enthusiasm for British imperialism, he offers a remarkably sympathetic account of the Sudanese people and the reasons for their rebellion, as well as criticizing Lord Kitchener and the desecration of the Mahdi’s tomb in Omdurman and opposing the British vilification of the Sudanese. The majority of the criticisms, however, were subsequently removed from the abridged single-volume edition of 1902, published after Churchill’s election to Parliament.

Langworth, pp. 27-30.

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