Recollections of a Rogue
London: Museum Press Limited, (1957). First British edition. Paintings, some color. Hardcover. Octavo. xxii, 302 pages.
Chamberlain's memoir details his personal adventures in Mexico and the American Southwest before, during, and after the Mexican War. It is the primary source for Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece, "Blood Meridian," and that novel's characters and many events are here described from life by Chamberlain. Chamberlain himself is the basis for McCarthy's protagonist, "The Kid." Importantly, Champberlain's memoir remains the only historical reference to that consummate villain, Judge Holden.
Chamberlain apparently wrote this memoir between the years 1855 and 1861, when he again joined the army during the Civil War. The content here reveals a half hero, half scoundrel lad who gloried in a fray and had an eye for a pretty girl. The unpublished manuscript was discovered in a Connecticut antiques shop in the 1940s. LIFE Magazine bought the illustrated manuscript and printed the first excerpts in three issues of the magazine in the summer of 1956.
This handsome first British edition has a dramatically different dust jacket illustration than the U. S. edition, and includes an excellent Foreword by British historian Denis William Brogan in addition to the U. S. edition's Introduction and Postscript by Roger Butterfield. Illustrated with 55 of Chamberlain's paintings, 16 of which are in color.
Near fine in a very good dust jacket. A touch of browning to free endpapers and underside of jacket. Slightest extremity wear to jacket.
Item #1502
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