Savrola, finely bound in full red Morocco by Bayntun-Riviere.
London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1900. First edition, first printing, first state. Full leather. This is an exceptional, finely bound British first edition, first printing, first state of Winston S. Churchill’s only novel.
This copy is a compellingly handsome example of the fine binder’s craft, in full red Morocco by Bayntun-Rivière. The binding features a hubbed spine with gilt-ruled compartments, gilt-decorated bands, and gilt-hatched spine ends. The spine features the title and author in the second and third compartments with the publication date at the heel. The first, fourth, fifth, and sixth compartments each feature a gilt lion rampant. The covers feature gilt rule borders and gilt-decorated edges, the front cover gilt-stamped with Churchill’s facsimile signature. The contents are bound with all edges gilt, red and gold silk head and tail bands, and combed pattern marbled endpapers framed by generous, double gilt-ruled turn-ins with decorative corner devices.
“BOUND BY BAYNTUN RIVIERE BATH ENGLAND” is gilt-stamped on the lower front pastedown turn-in. In 1939, the year the Second World War began, the firm of George Bayntun acquired the Rivière Bindery. The Bindery has been in residence on Manvers Street in Bath ever since.
Condition of the binding is fine, with no toning, soiling, blemishes, or appreciable wear. The contents are as impressive as the binding, bright and immaculately clean. We find no spotting, no soiling, and no previous ownership marks. There are two states of the first printing, the second state distinguished by a title page cancellans with a blank verso. This copy confirms first state with an integral title page with the print history on the title page.
A very young Churchill was exuberant about publication at the time. Even though Savrola was his third published book, it was actually the first book he undertook and the second he completed. His “Tale of the Revolution in Laurania” is a melodramatic tale of political intrigue in a fictional Mediterranean state. He would later make deprecating comments about his novel and it is perhaps instructive that he never wrote another. In his 1930 autobiography he wrote, "I have consistently urged my friends to abstain from reading it [Savrola]." However, his mixed feelings about his only novel did not keep Churchill from writing a foreword to a new edition in 1956: "The preface to the first edition in 1900 submitted the book 'with considerable trepidation to the judgment or the clemency of the public.' The intervening fifty-five years have somewhat dulled though certainly not changed my sentiments on this point." Irrespective of Churchill's feelings about his book or the literary merit thereof, the novel certainly provides an interesting insight into the early political perspective and sentiment of the then very young Churchill.
Reference: Cohen A3.2.a, Woods/ICS A3(ba.1), Langworth p.41. Item #008295
Price: $2,000.00