Gipsy Smith, An Autobiography 1918 Signed. This book is titled “Gipsy Smith, His Life And Work, By Himself” on the title page and reads “Gipsy Smith, An Autobiography” on the front cover, it was written by Gipsy Smith and published by Fleming Revell Company in 1913, and it’s a presentation copy that was signed by Smith in 1918. Gipsy Smith (1860 - 1947), named Rodney Smith at birth, was a British evangelist who preached the Gospel in the United States and Great Britain for over 70 years, and he was an early member of The Salvation Army. Born in a tent in Epping Forest, six miles from London, he received no formal education and his family made a living selling baskets, tinware, and clothes pegs. His father was in and out of jail for a variety of offenses and heard the gospel from a prison chaplain, and Rodney - Gipsy - and his family were converted in the early 1870’s. He taught himself to read and write and began to practice preaching, where he would sing hymns to the people he met, and he became known as "the singing gypsy boy.” In 1877, at a convention at the Christian Mission headquarters in London, William Booth noticed the gypsies and realized the potential in young Smith - Booth was a Methodist preacher who founded the Salvation Army - and Booth invited Smith to be an evangelist with the Mission, which became the Salvation Army. For six years (1877–1882) Smith served on street corners and mission halls, literally preaching the Gospel. Through Smith’s efforts, membership rose to hundreds, then more, but he got in trouble with the Christian Mission in 1882 because he was given a gold watch and his wife was given about £5 from warm-hearted members of local churches, but it was forbidden for Salvation Army members to accept gifts, and he was dismissed from the organization. Smith was not given a chance to give back the gifts, and it seems like there was friction between Booth’s sons and Smith; someone said one of Booth’s sons “had it out for Smith”, and Smith’s evangelical crowds were up to 1500 by this time. Smith ended up traveling around the world on evangelistic crusades, and sometimes he would interrupt his sermon and just burst into song. Several of these hymns were recorded by Columbia Records, and even though he was a Methodist, ministers of all denominations loved him. It is said that he never had a meeting without conversions, and during World War I he ministered under the auspices of the Y.M.C.A. to the British troops in France, often visiting the front lines. As a result, King George VI made him a Member of the Order of the British Empire, a high honor for someone born in such simple surroundings. The book has burgundy boards with the title in white fonts and a black border on the front cover, blank endpapers with an inscription on the front flyleaf that reads “To Bobby Henderson, With love, many good wishes for his future. Gipsy Smith, April 10, 1918”, one leaf advertising two books by Gipsy Smith, a frontis portrait of Gipsy Smith with a facsimile signature and protective tissue guard, then the title page, a copyright page which says the book was first published in 1901 by the National Council of The Evangelical Free Churches and copyrighted in 1902 by Fleming H. Revell, a page dedicated to Gipsy’s father, a Note to Gipsy’s Readers, a four-page Introduction to the American Edition, a three-page Introduction by Rev. Dr. Alexander McLaren, two pages of Contents, a List of Illustrations, text that runs from 17 to page 330, including a Postscript at the rear, and a Y.M.C.A. card is laid in at the front. The book also comes in dual slipcases - an inner one that folds over the book and a beautiful outer slipcase with five raised bands and gill lettering on the spine, with “Robert L. Henderson Collection” in gilt at the bottom of the spine. The outer slipcase measures 8 3/8 x 6 1/8 in. wide and the book measures 7 3/4 x 5 1/4 in. wide, with a tight binding and clean pages and text, the signature is clear and bold, the spine has faded and the white fonts on the front cover are faded a bit, there’s light bumps and light rubbing at the heel and crown of the spine, light rubbing at the tips and two tips are slightly turned in, and overall a good copy with a fabulous inscription and signature by the author, and it is a rare presentation copy by Gipsy Smith. We found only eight copies offered online at the rare book website we use, and only one was a signed copy by the author, and none of them were presentation copies signed by the author, let alone in a beautiful slipcase. For people who are Evangelicals or members of the Methodist faith, this book is for you. #228 #4996