My African Journey

An ex library 12mo (145mm x 194mm) hardcover book with no dust-wrapper in good+ condition. Bound in the striking, original pictorial publishers cloth cover with gilt titles on the spine and title in black together with a drawing of Churchill and the Rhinoceros, which he killed in red, black and blue on the front cover. Thirteen preliminary pages plus 226 pages of text; 61 photographic illustrations some of which, according to a note on the title page, were taken by the author and the rest by Lt. Colonel Gordon Wilson; complete with three maps;18 page publisher’s catalogue bound in at the end. Although the book is ex library it has been professionally restored and has no unsightly library pocket or the usual stamps, labels or markings, except for three library stamps on the half-title and title pages and the verso of the frontispiece. The binding is neat, clean and firm and the contents are clean and free of foxing. A desirable addition to a Churchill collection.

After completing his schooling, Churchill was commissioned as a cornet in the 4th Queens Own Hussars. As his salary as a junior officer, though supplemented by his mother, was insufficient for an officer, he actively tried to seek military action, using his family connections, to be able to act as war correspondent for several London papers, and to write books about his experiences. He saw active service in several campaigns, including the Anglo-Boer War. His writings brought him to public attention and significant additional income. He retired from the regular army in 1902 and, having won a seat in Parliament in 1900, devoted his time to affairs of state.

As Under-secretary of State for the Colonies, Churchill took off five months, during 1907, to visit East Africa and wrote this present book covering Kenya and Uganda, written on the spot by a man renowned for his powers of observation. It was first serialised in the Strand Magazine and, subsequently, in 1908, Hodder and Stoughton undertook to publish the material, greatly enhanced, as the book “My African Journey” The book is unique in containing photographs by Churchill himself.