34
104 104.eliot, t.s. Poems 1909-1925. Faber & Gwyer Ltd. 1925. £2,500
8vo., original cloth with dust wrapper. Wrapper with chip on top edge of lower panel, slightly darkened on spine and with a little rubbing and wear. generally a very good copy.
First edition. this key early collection marked the start of eliot’s association with Faber, collecting all the key early works including Prufrock, Poems (1920), The Waste Land and The Hollow Men which appears complete here for the first time.
105
105. eliot, t.s. Murder in the cathedral. Faber and Faber. 1948.
£150
8vo. original purple cloth with dust wrapper. Wrapper a little chipped and worn, slightly darkened on spine. a newspaper clipped photograph of eliot on inside flap of wrpper, otherwise a very good copy.
First edition.
elPhinstone’s classic account oF aFghanistan, Which ‘continueD to inForM British PolicY on the north- Western Frontier until the 1840s’
106. elPHinstone, mountstuart. an account of the Kingdom of caubul, and its Dependencies in Persia, tartary, and india; comprising a View of the afghaun nation, and a history of the Dooraunee Monarchy. London: A. Strahan for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, and J. Murray, 1815.
£3,950
4to (283 x 214mm). contemporary english half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece in one, dated in gilt at the foot, modern marbled endpapers, all edges marbled; pp. [i]-viii, [‘*v’]-’*vii’, [1 (list of plates)], [2 (errata, verso blank)], [ix]-xxi, [1 (blank)], [1]-72, ‘71*’-’*72’, 73-675, [1 (blank)], with inserted bifolium ‘[a]’, cancellans *K4-5, *M2-3, and **Q3; 13 hand-coloured aquatint plates (2 watermarked ‘1812’) after r.M. grindlay et al., one engraved plate, one folding engraved map by M. thomson after John Macartney, hand-coloured in outline, one engraved map by thomson, hand-coloured in outline, and letterpress genealogical table in the text; a little rubbed and scuffed, rebacked retaining all but last compartment of original spine, endpapers and flyleaves renewed, some light spotting, marking and offsetting, small marginal paperflaw on g1, old marginal repairs on quire 2P, folding map with light offsetting and small tears, and re-guarded, nonetheless a very fresh and attractive copy in a contemporary binding.
First edition. the author and administrator Mountstuart elphinstone (1779-1859), entered the service of the east india company as a young man, travelling via calcutta to take up a position in Benares in 1796, working under samuel Davis, judge and magistrate of the district, ‘who was one of the several British officers at this centre of ancient learning to profess an interest in indian literature and philosophy. elphinstone quickly learned Persian and began a lifelong interest in oriental studies which had been foreshadowed by his attainments in the latin and greek classics. elphinstone’s knowledge of the intricacies of indian politics also expanded rapidly because Benares was a key centre of British intelligence gathering in northern india’ (oDnB). Following a brief period of study at Fort William college in 1801, elphinstone was appointed assistant to the governor-general’s political agent at the court of the Maratha Peshwa in Poona, where he arrived in 1802. after participating in various military actions under sir arthur Wellesley’s command against Maratha princes, he was appointed resident minister to the court of the defeated Bhonsla ruler of Berar, at nagpur in 1804, remaining there
for some four years and increasing greatly his knowledge of indian politics.
however, as the oDnB relates, ‘as the global struggle between Britain and napoleonic France came to a climax, the indian authorities under the governor-general, lord Minto, became increasingly concerned that a hostile alliance of Persia, afghanistan, and the newly powerful Punjab, under the sikh ruler ranjit singh, might coalesce on the northern frontiers of British india. a French embassy was already in the Persian capital, and so in 1808 elphinstone was sent to treat with afghan ruler shah shuja, and charles Metcalfe was dispatched to make a defensive alliance with ranjit singh. elphinstone’s mission to Kabul was formally a failure. suspicious of the British, the afghan court refused to allow the embassy to proceed beyond the border town of Peshawar. shah shuja was only prepared to make an alliance in return for substantial British aid which the envoy was unable to offer. Meanwhile, a revolt in Kashmir had made the shah’s tenure of power increasingly precarious. elphinstone did, however, return to india with a mass of new information about the Punjab and the north-west. he and his aides delineated the tension in the afghan polity between the Kabul monarchy and the tribal societies of the periphery in which the mullahs played an important role. he created route plans for the lands through which he was allowed to travel and skilfully drew on the knowledge of the mercantile communities of Peshawar, professional runners, and well-connected islamic teachers to create a skeleton geography of the lands to the north and west. he even drew upon information provided by the indian physicians who travelled constantly between Peshawar, Kabul, and central asia. in its depiction of climate, diseases, agriculture, and manufactures, elphinstone’s Report was a typical
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