THE STORY OF THE MALAKAND FIELD FORCE -Second Colonial Library Edition-

London: Longmans Green & Co., 1899. Second Colonial Library Edition (First Printing “New Edition”) [1 of 360 copies] (Cohen A1.4.a) (Woods A1ab). Hardcover. Very Good. 8vo (337 pages, with frontis portrait and 6 maps, including 2 fold-out in color.). This is a beautiful copy of the Second Colonial Library edition, bound in a vivid blue-green cloth fascinatingly different from the standard Colonial Library gray-green cloth. The Second Colonial Library edition was bound from “Silver Library” sheets for export to the colonies. Only 360 copies of this printing were bound in cloth, according to bibliographer Ronald Cohen (another 130 were bound in softcover). “Intended for circulation only in India and the British colonies,” Colonial Library volumes did not generally fare well, due to the colonies’ harsher climate conditions. This survivor is quite the exception. The blue stamping on the green cloth clovers is bright, the covers are clean, the spine is only modestly faded and the gilt lettering only modestly dulled. The binding is square and tight, with very faint fraying to the spine head. The title page has been archivally re-attached, the paper is somewhat browned with age but unfoxed. The contents are otherwise fine. A striking, early rarity.