While England Slept, signed by Randolph S. Churchill.
New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1941. U.S. first edition, fourth and final printing. Hardcover. This Second World War issue of the precursor to Winston S. Churchill's great war speeches is signed by Churchill's only son, Randolph, who compiled the volume and contributed a Preface and Notes. Directly below the printed dedication "TO MY FATHER" on the page preceding his Preface, Randolph signed "Randolph S. Churchill". Not only is this copy signed by Randolph, but it is also the scarce variant binding in the dust jacket unique to this fourth and final printing.
This is the U.S. first edition, fourth and final printing in dust jacket, published in September 1941, sixteen months after the author became wartime Prime Minister of Great Britain. The fourth printing was issued in 1941 (despite the 1938 date on the title and copyright pages). Even though this final printing was only 1,000 copies, two different variants of both the dust jacket and the binding are known to us. The fourth printing bindings were issued in both a smooth blue cloth identical to the first, second, and third printings and a strikingly different coarse orange cloth unique to the fourth and final printing. Fourth printings came in two dust jackets - one identical to that of the third printing and another with changes to the rear face and rear flap unique to this fourth printing.
As might be expected, this is the only copy we know of thus - bound in the publisher's variant orange cloth, wrapped in the unique fourth printing dust jacket, and signed by Churchill's son.
Condition of the signed volume is very good, the jacket very good minus. The orange cloth binding is square, tight, and clean with sharp corners, mildly spine toned consonant with toning to the jacket. The contents are clean, with no spotting and no previous ownership marks, and the orange topstain retains strong hue, only lightly sunned. We note modest age-toning and partial cosmetic splits to the paper at the front pastedown that do not affect binding integrity. The dust jacket is unclipped, retaining the original “$4.00” front flap price, and substantially complete, with minor loss confined to extremities, including the spine ends and corners. In addition to the minor losses, the jacket shows various closed tears to extremities and attendant wrinkling, light overall soiling to the white rear face, and moderate sunning and scuffing to the spine. The jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover.
Randolph Spencer Churchill (1911-1968), Winston and Clementine’s only son, had Churchillian gifts which he ultimately failed to fully refine and apply. Historian Andrew Roberts has said: “Aside from his heroically dismal manners, his gambling, arrogance, vicious temper, indiscretions, and aggression,” Randolph “was generous, patriotic, extravagant and amazingly courageous.” Randolph dwelt in his father’s shadow and often disappointed him. Nonetheless, “Winston Churchill never let the sun go down upon his wrath, and when Randolph’s idleness ended in lecture tours and races for Parliament, he lent his support, even when his son’s campaigns were politically unhelpful to him.
In the shadow of impending war in the late 1930’s, Winston turned to his son, Randolph, to compile this critical volume of his speeches. Randolph would likewise compile and edit the first volume of his father’s famous war speeches, Into Battle, published in the same year as this fourth printing of While England Slept.
“During World War II, when Randolph served with distinction in North Africa and Yugoslavia, Winston entrusted him with sensitive tasks which he performed with skill and discretion… After the war, Churchill willed his invaluable archive to Randolph; and in 1959, he bestowed the ultimate accolade by inviting Randolph to be his official biographer.” (Langworth) Perhaps symbolically, Randolph completed only the first two volumes before he died in 1968.
Despite his many failings, Randolph did well with this volume. While England Slept contains text from 41 Churchill speeches criticizing British foreign policy, spanning 25 October 1928 to 24 March 1938. This collection has been called "…the permanent record of one man’s unceasing struggle in the face of resentment, apathy, and complacency”.
At the time, on the eve of the Second World War, the British edition was given the politically palatable title Arms and the Covenant – referencing the failed Covenant of the post-WWI League of Nations. The U.S. title – While England Slept - is more candid. Churchill bibliographer Frederick Woods called this edition "probably the most crucial volume of speeches that he ever published". As testimony to the book's importance, a copy of While England Slept lay on "President Roosevelt's bedside table, with key passages, including an analysis of the president's peace initiative, underscored." (William Manchester, The Last Lion, Volume II, p.305)
Reference: Cohen A107.2.d, Woods/ICS A44(b.4). Langworth p.193. Item #008284
Price: $1,500.00