Secret Session Speeches, the publisher's full black Morocco presentation binding, signed and dated by Churchill in the year of publication and by his youngest daughter, Mary, in 1947
London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1946. First edition, publisher's presentation binding, inscribed. Full leather. This is a triply rare, potentially unique signed volume of Churchill's Second World War speeches. First, it is the publisher's presentation binding. Second, this special binding is not only rare, but also in exceptional condition. Third and most significantly, this particular copy is signed and dated both by the author and his youngest daughter, Mary, who traveled and worked closely with her father during the war.
Churchill's signature is inked in black in three lines on the recto of the blank preceding the half title: "From | Winston S. Churchill | 1946". On the same page, Mary's signature in blue ink in two lines reads: "Mary Soames | 1947".
A very small number of British first editions of Churchill's war speeches were bound by the publisher in full black pebble-grain Morocco with gilt top edge, head and foot bands, and decorative endpapers. Such bindings of any of the seven volumes are quite rare, but Secret Session Speeches is the rarest. Condition of this copy is near fine. The publisher's black Morocco binding remains in superlative condition, clean and sharp-cornered with only trivial, superficial blemishes and a hint of shelf wear to extremities. The contents are crisp and bright with no spotting. Searching for flaws, we find only transfer browning to the perimeter of the endpapers from contact with the leather and binding glue.
The volume is housed in a lovely quarter black Morocco Solander case, whose rounded spine features gilt rule-bracketed raised spine bands, twin red spine labels, and gilt print. The sides are black buckram with a gilt-ruled transition from the Morocco spine, the interior lined with black velvet, the tray with a drop-back fore edge. Condition is near fine, with only light shelf wear to the sides.
Churchill signed this seventh and final volume of his war speeches in the year of publication. This slim volume contains five speeches Churchill made to the House of Commons sitting in Secret Session on 20 June and 17 September 1940, 25 June 1941, and 23 April and 10 December 1942. Publication was made possible when the ban on revealing what took place in the wartime Secret Sessions was lifted in December 1945. As explained by the volume's compiler, Charles Eade, in his Introduction, "In accordance with Parliamentary custom, these speeches were not recorded even for official and historical purposes. Fortunately, the speeches were of such character that Mr. Churchill before delivering four of them prepared full texts of what he proposed to say." Only the first speech, that of 20 June 1940 after the fall of France, lacked a full text dictated by Churchill. For this first of Churchill's Secret Session speeches, the volume reproduces a photocopy of his original notes and emendations. In addition to Eade's Introduction, the book adds explanatory and context-setting comment preceding each speech, and this British edition adds eight leaves of plates at page 48 bearing sixteen full page wartime photographs and captions.
Baroness Mary Soames, nee Mary Spencer-Churchill (1922-2014) was the youngest and longest-lived of Winston and Clementine's five children. During the Second World War, Mary joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service, serving in anti-aircraft batteries. Later in the war, Mary accompanied her father on several of his journeys abroad, including to Potsdam for the summit with Truman and Stalin. She demobilized in 1946 and in February 1947 Winston walked Mary up the aisle when she married Arthur Christopher John Soames, the same year that this copy of her father's final volume of War Speeches was signed by her as "Mary Soames". She would have five children with Christopher and support his own political career. Later in life, Mary would produce several well-regarded books about her parents and her own life. She was made a dame in 1980 and in 2005 was appointed a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter.
Reference: Cohen A227.2.a, Woods/ICS A114(b), Langworth p.250. Item #008320
Price: $18,000.00