Books

First edition, third impression, published a year after the first. The publishers printed 503 copies but wasted most of them to not compete with the upcoming abridged edition: "The result is that only 140 copies of the third printing were ever made available and that it is far and away the scarcest of the first-edition printings" (Cohen). Churchill's second book was based on his own role as a war reporter in the Anglo-Egyptian reconquest of Sudan. "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, p. 27). Churchill himself calls it, in the first sentence, "a tale of blood and war". Provenance: the collection of Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Magazine, and presidential candidate in the 1996 and 2000 US elections; his book label is loosely inserted. Two vols, octavo. Original dark blue cloth, titles and pictorial decoration gilt to spines and front covers, black endpapers. Photogravure portrait frontispiece to each vol. and 5 similar plates (further photogravure in text), 23 colour maps and battles plans of which 20 folding, other maps and illustrations to the text. With 32-pp. publisher's catalogue at rear dated "7/00" (al Cloth a little rubbed and soiled, some spotting to contents, rear hinge of vol. II cracked, light stain to early leaves of vol. I and towards end of vol. II, chip to fore edge of vol. I pp. 187/8 (not into text). A very good copy. Cohen A2.1.d. Richard M. Langworth, A Connoisseur's Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill, 1998.

The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan (1899), by Winston Churchill, is a history of the British imperial involvement in the Sudan and the campaign to reconquer the Sudan following the defeat of the revolt led by the Mahdist leader, Muhammad Ahmad.