Here is a gem indeed; the true first edition [in Welsh of course] of D. M. Phillips' biography of Evan Roberts. It was the most significant biography of Roberts at the time and remains an absolutely critical primary resource on the Welsh Revival.
Wonderfully, this was the personal copy of one of Evan Roberts' closest friends, and perhaps the earliest co-revivalist on record, Sidney Evans.
Sidney Evans was five years Roberts' younger, but the two became fast friends early in life and traveled together to attend Evan Phillips' school in Newcastle Emlyn to prepare for Trefeca theological college. They took their theology exames together. They shared the same housing and Sidney was with Roberts at the historic meeting in Blaenannerch where Roberts was filled with the Holy Spirit. And it was to Sidney Evans Roberts first confided he felt called to see 100,000 souls come to Christ.
The two worked very closely together in the early stages of the Revival, and were initially the only pair of revivalists, having divided Wales between them as they sought to fan the flames of the revival for all of Wales. Like Evan Roberts, Sidney travelled with his own team of evangelists and singers. Also like Evan, he was not an ordained minister.
Sidney was an effective evangelist, though much after the style of Roberts. He did not "preach," so much as exhort and lead and prophesy and pray. A particularly powerful instance of revival took place under his leadership at Blaenafon in January of 1905. A media report in advance of Sidney's arrival seems to view him in the same way Evan was viewed; he was a vessel and revival was expected! He was just 22 years old at the time.
After the Revival, he married Evan Roberts' sister Mary. They served together as missionaries in India, returning to Wales in 1945 where they pastored the Presbyterian Chapel at Gowerton until his death in 1960. Sidney and Mary are buried by Evan Roberts at Moriah.
Such a close, personal object to the revival is a rare acquisition. Tickets to attend revival meetings regularly sell for $1,000 - $1,500 per item. This is something so much more; Roberts' primary co-laborer and friend's personal copy of the defining historical work on the movement.
Phillips, D. M. Evan Roberts A'I Waith. Dolgellau: Argraffwyd Gan E. w. Evans, Swyddfa'r "Goleuad." 1912. First Edition. 456pp.
Original plain red cloth, some wear and fading, but very solid. Boldly inscribed by Sidney Evans on the blank ffep. Then a later inscription beside it. Opposite the title page, a printed photograph of Roberts has been neatly inserted. Otherwise clean, crisp, and solid.