Churchill's Rise to Greatness This Week at LiveAuctionTalk.com

Online, December 16, 2010 (Newswire.com) - With his red hair, pink skin and egg-shaped face, 22-year-old Winston Churchill was hard to miss--even as a young warrior. As a cavalry lieutenant in the Fourth Hussars he was settling into a comfortable life in the mountain city of Bangalore, India.

It was 1896 and India was still a part of British rule. Many army units were stationed in India helping to maintain peace and protect government officers and British businesses.

Winston and two of his fellow officers were living the good life in a huge bungalow with servants. He grew roses, played polo and collected butterflies. Winston also studied history, economics and philosophy in his spare time with books he begged his mother to send. He asked her to mail big, important books and read everything of value he could find.

"A university of one," he called it.

He wasn't shy about getting himself to the center of action either. The following year Winston was on vacation in England and got wind of a military plan to punish rebel tribesmen near the northwest border of India.

The rebels were no match for British forces and were quickly defeated. Winston took detailed notes of each battle and learned more than he probably wanted to about guerrilla warfare. Out of the experience came his first book the "Malakand Field Force."

On July 22, PBA Galleries, San Francisco, featured Winston's first book, "Malakand Field Force" on the block in its book sale.

The presumed first issue text inscribed from the author to Algernon Well, sold for $9,600.

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