London to Ladysmith via Pretoria by Winston S. Churchill - 1900

London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1900. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very good. This is Churchill's fourth book and the first of his two books based on his newspaper despatches sent from the front in South Africa. This one relates the exciting story of his capture by the Boers and the subsequent daring escape that made him a celebrity. The first edition is a beautiful book, but notoriously fragile and prone to wear, soiling, and spotting. This first edition, first printing copy is not fine, but is far better than most copies we see. Spine presentation is the distinguishing feature of this copy; the spine cloth is unusually clean and both the gilt and red lettering remaining bright and clearly legible and with only minor wrinkling at the spine ends. The pictorial front cover shows only light soiling at the edges. The blank rear cover is lightly soiled and stained, but shows only minimal wear at the corners. The contents are bright and clean with virtually no internal spotting and no previous owner inscriptions. Spotting is confined to the text block edges. The original black endpapers are intact. Maps and plans are present, clean, and crisp. Bibliographic reference: Cohen A4.1.a, Woods/ICS A4(a.1), Langworth p.53.