THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF CECIL J. RHODES

A substantial work comprising much more than the Last Will. 198pp. Portrait frontispiece of Rhodes plus numerous illustrations mainly from photographs, including facsimile pages from one of Rhodes' letters to the author. 

William Thomas Stead was an influential newspaper editor and publisher who started his journalistic career in Darlington with the Northern Echo, before moving to London to work on the Pall Mall Gazette and work as a pioneer in investigative journalism. In 1899 he founded the Review of Reviews. Initially a friend of Cecil Rhodes, he was struck off the list of Rhodes' executors after supporting the Boers' cause in the press. As a supporter of the Peace and other political Movements, Stead was invited to speak at a Peace Congress at Carnegie Hall in 1912, having reputedly been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize that year; tragically his ship sank on the way and Stead became the most famous Englishman to perish on the *Titanic*. Stead helped women and children into the lifeboats and gave his life-jacket to another passenger; he was last spotted alongside John Jacob Astor IV clinging to a raft and his body was never recovered. Curiously Stead wrote articles in both 1886 and 1892 that featured the loss of life on a voyage due to insufficient lifeboats and to collisions with icebergs. 

In the original green with white lettering and decoration on the front board and a gilt lettered spine. Slight bumping of some corners and the bottom of the front board adjacent to the spine. Contemporary bookplate on the front pastedown. Otherwise a very good clean tight copy with no foxing in far better than average condition.