Long Walk To Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela.

South Africa: MacDonald Purnell, 1994. First South African edition, early printing of the autobiography of one of the greatest moral leaders of the twentieth century which has went on to sell over six million copies worldwide. Octavo, original black cloth, cartographic endpapers, illustrated with photographs. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page, "To Ambassador Jean-Pierre Masset of France. Compliments & best wishes. NMandela 29.1.96." The recipient, His Excellency Jean-Pierre Masset served as the French Ambassador to Pakistan from 1989 to 1993, a period of intense bilateral relations between France and Pakistan, marked by the state visit of President Francois Mitterrand, the first visit of a French President since the creation of Pakistan. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. An excellent association. "The Nelson Mandela who emerges from his memoir is considerably more human than the icon of legend Mandela is, on the evidence of his amazing life, neither a messiah nor a moralist nor really a revolutionary but a pragmatist to the core, a shrewd balancer of honor and interests. He is, to use a word unhappily fallen into disrepute, a politician, though one distinguished from lesser practitioners of his calling mainly by his unwavering faith in his ultimate objective, ending white minority rule" (New York Times).