The River War

London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1933. Hardcover. This is the first printing of the bibliographically significant 1933 edition of Churchill's second book in the scarce dust jacket. Originally published in 1899, The River War recounts Churchill's experiences and reflections concerning British involvement in the Sudan, including Churchill’s 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).

The distinctive illustrated dust jacket of the first printing (published in January 1933) was unique to the first printing. This copy is very good in a fair dust jacket. The purple cloth binding proved quite prone to fading, scuffing, and soiling. This binding is square and tight with sharp corners and strong purple hue, as would be expected of a jacketed copy, but with shelf wear to joints and extremities. The contents remain clean with a crisp, unread feel. All maps and plans are present and pristine. Age-toning is apparent only to the page edges. We find no spotting. There is a tiny, vintage bookseller's sticker affixed to the lower front pastedown and the date "April 7/33" inked to the lower front free endpaper verso. The dust jacket remains bright and substantially complete, though with some flaws. There is residue at the center spine, almost certainly from a previous bookseller sticker, now removed, that once obscured the publisher's printed price. Loss is fractional, confined to the spine ends and flap fold extremities, and the jacket is as bright on the spine as on the faces, despite mild overall soiling, a bit heavier to the upper rear panel, light wear to extremities, and a closed tear at the upper rear joint. The dust jacket is protected beneath a removable, clear, archival cover.

When this printing was published, the author – once an itinerant cavalry officer and war correspondent during the reign of Queen Victoria – was beginning his 1930s “wilderness years” which he was to spend out of power and out of favor, frequently at odds with both his own political party and prevailing public sentiment. Churchill spent much of the remainder of the decade vigorously advocating rearmament and collective security - a task in which he was persistent, eloquent, and largely unheeded. The end of the decade brought awful vindication; with the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 Churchill returned to the Cabinet and to war. By May 1940 he was Britain’s prime minister.

Churchill’s wartime leadership was certainly informed by the battlefield experiences and observations of his youth. 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 in The River War, 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 fight and write and earned his early fame.

Reference: Cohen A2.4.a, Woods/ICS A2(da.1), Langworth p.33