The War Speeches, a full set of seven British first editions - Into Battle, The Unrelenting Struggle, The End of the Beginning, Onwards to Victory, The Dawn of Liberation, Victory, and Secret Session Speeches.
London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1941-1946. First edition, first printings. Hardcover. Here is a full jacketed set of British first edition, first printings of Churchill's seven war speeches volumes. Few books are as emblematic of Churchill’s literary and leadership gifts as his war speeches volumes. Between 1941 and 1946, Churchill's war speeches were published in seven individual volumes. The British first editions are visually striking, but were printed on cheap wartime paper, bound in coarse cloth, and wrapped in bright, fragile dust jackets. They proved highly susceptible to spotting, soiling, and fading, so the passage of time has been hard on most surviving first editions.
This full first edition, first printing set features very good minus or better volumes in very good minus or better dust jackets. The blue cloth bindings remain square, clean, and tight with just a few bruised corners and light shelf wear to extremities. Only the spines of the first and third volumes show toning. The second volume has a single pinhole at the center left of the front cover, penetrating within through the prelims to p.1. We find no previous ownership marks of any kind in the set. Spotting, endemic to the wartime paper, is the chief defect, and it is variable. In general, it is confined to prelims and page edges, though entirely absent in the first two volumes, heavy only to the first and final leaves and page edges of the second volume.
There were two states of the first printing of the first, second, and sixth volumes. In this set, Into Battle is not only first printing, but first state, confirmed by the absence of pagination at pages 78 and 294. The binding of Into Battle is a smoother, darker blue cloth variant, which in our experience is exclusively associated with the first state of the first printing. The Unrelenting Struggle is likewise first state, with irregular pagination at p.281, as is Victory, confirmed by incorrect pagination at p.177.
All seven first printing dust jackets are unclipped, retaining their original front flap prices. None of the dust jackets shows significant losses, though all seven show various small losses, wear, and blemishes. The first six nonetheless retain bright spine color. The white Secret Session Speeches dust jacket shows none of the usual spotting, but does suffer some spine toning. Each dust jacket is newly fitted with a clear, removable, archival cover.
During his long public life, Winston Churchill played many roles worthy of note - Member of Parliament for more than half a century, soldier and war correspondent, author of scores of books, ardent social reformer, combative cold warrior, Nobel Prize winner, painter. But Churchill's preeminence as a historical figure owes most to his indispensable leadership during the Second World War, when his soaring and defiant oratory sustained his countrymen and inspired the free world. Of Churchill, Edward R. Murrow said: "He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle." When Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953, it was partly “…for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.”
Reference: Cohen A142.1.a, A172.1.a, A183.1.a, A194.1.a, A214.1.a, A223.1.a, A227.2.a; Woods/ICS A66(a.1), A89(a.1), A94(a.1), A101(a.1), A107(a.1), A112(ab), A114(b); Langworth pages 204, 213, 218, 223, 228, 234, 250. Item #008231
Price: $1,000.00