MEMOIRS OF A BENGAL CIVILIAN (First edition - first printing)

First edition, first printing - illustrated with a frontispiece portraying the author, aged about 21 and with an Introduction by Philip Mason. A career as an administrator from 1858-1879. Service in Bihar and Orissa. ***A near fine example in yellow cloth-covered boards, with gilt titles and decorations to the spine. The gilt is still beautifully bright, having been protected by the dustwrapper. The boards are extremely clean, with no significant faults. The edges and the corner tips of the boards are just very slightly rubbed. No bumps or creases. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. There are some splash stains to the top edge of the page block and slight finger marks to the fore-edge. Internally also near fine with no foxing to the pages. Pages clean. No creases or tears. With a previous owner's details on the front free endpaper. ***In a very good cream and brown coloured dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of 30s net at the bottom corner of the front flap. The dustwrapper is virtually complete, with no significant ares of loss - just some minimal chipping at the top of the spine and corner tips, with some creasing and rubbing to the extremities, and some marks to the back panel (please see scans). ***222mm x 148mm. 312 pages including an Index at the back of the book. ***'John Beames was an Indian Civilian who went to India the year after the Mutiny and served there until 1893. He was one of the last to attend the old Haileybury of the East India Company before the advent of the "competition wallahs", and his account of his training for the service is extremely amusing. After his first appointment in the Punjab under Sir John Lawrence, he went to Bengal where the rest of his career was spent. His memoirs show as vividly and humorously as any document of the time what it was like to be plunged as a young man into executive and judicial responsibility in a strange land and to live a varied, arduous but not unprivileged life as an agent of imperial power'. (Quote taken from the front flap of the dustwrapper) ***'John William Beames (21 June 1837 - 24 May 1902) was a civil servant and author in British India. He served in the Punjab from March 1859 to late 1861, and in Bengal from December 1861 until the conclusion of his service in 1893. He was also a scholar of Indian history, literature and linguistics. His great work was a comparative grammar of Indo-Aryan languages, published in three volumes in 1872-1879. When he retired from the Indian Civil Service in March 1893, he had gained extensive knowledge of Indian life, and in 1896 wrote an account of his career, first published in 1961 as "Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian"'.' (Wiki) ***A nice example of this interesting biographical work by civil servant John Beames. Of interest to Indian historians, and those interested in the Colonial history of India. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.…