Description

“HE HAS SEEN REAL WAR AS A SOLDIER”: VERY RARE FIRST EDITION OF IAN HAMILTON’S MARCH, 1900, SIGNED BY WINSTON CHURCHILL

CHURCHILL, Winston. Ian Hamilton’s March. Together with Extracts from the Diary of Lieutenant H. Frankland. A Prisoner of War at Pretoria. London: Longmans, Green, 1900. Octavo, original crimson cloth.

First edition of the second of Churchill’s two books on the second Boer war in South Africa, an especially rare copy signed by him, with the words “from” and “1902” above and below his signature likely belonging to Brigadier General Percy Wilson Brown, who also served in the Boer War, in original unrestored bright gilt cloth.

Ian Hamilton’s March, the sequel to Churchill’s London to Ladysmith, “completes his coverage of the Boer War, including the liberation of the Boer prison camp in Pretoria where he had been held prisoner. It describes the fighting march of Ian Hamilton’s mounted division from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg (Churchill rode a bicycle into ‘Jo’burg’ a day before the army arrived) and on to Pretoria, where the author was able to help liberate his former fellow prisoners” (Langworth, 58). Hamilton proposed Churchill for the Victoria Cross for some of his brave acts during the Boer War, but Churchill, having resigned his South African Light Horse commission in order to act as a journalist, was ineligible. The volume consists of 17 letters Churchill wrote as a Morning Post correspondent; “in contrast to London to Ladysmith, the texts of the originally published letters were more extensively revised and four letters were included which had never appeared in periodical form” (Cohen A8.1.a). Its publication won Churchill high praise for his “courage and boundless energy. He has seen real war as a soldier… [and] has a talent for adventures” (New York Times).

Signed first editions of the book are especially rare. Churchill’s contemporary signature herein is said to have been done for Brigadier General Percy Wilson Brown. The words “From” and “1902” that accompany Churchill’s signature are seemingly in the hand of General Brown. who served in the Boer War from 1899-1902, and was a commanding officer of the 1st Gordon Highlanders in WWI. Containing frontispiece portrait of Hamilton and ten maps (one folding and colored). With four pages of advertisements for other Churchill works and a 32-page publisher’s catalog dated “7/00” bound at rear. While some assume a dust jacket was issued, there are “none known or reported” (Cohen I:103). Cohen A8.1.a. Langworth, 59. Woods A5.

Text generally fresh with light scattered foxing, trace of soiling, mild toning to spine of original unrestored cloth. A very rare near-fine signed copy.