The Second World War: The Gathering Storm, a presentation copy of the first volume of Churchill's history of the Second World War, inscribed and dated by Churchill to his valet, Norman McGowan.
Housed in a quarter black Morocco Solander case
London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1950. Second edition, second printing. Hardcover. This first volume of Winston S. Churchill’s history of the Second World War is a presentation copy inscribed and dated by Churchill to his valet, Norman McGowan, in 1951. The inscription is inked in blue in five lines on the half title: "For | Norman McGowan | from | Winston S. Churchill | 1951".
This British "Third Edition" (bibliographically the second printing of the second edition) was published in February 1950, five months after McGowan began his service with Churchill. Condition is very good minus in a good plus dust jacket. The black cloth binding is square with bright spine gilt, and sharp corners. There is modest shelf wear to extremities and light, superficial scuffs and blemishes. The contents are clean, mildly age-toned but with no appreciable spotting or previous ownership marks. Most likely from repeatedly showing the prized inscription, there is a cosmetic split at the inscribed half-title gutter, revealing, but not compromising, the intact mull beneath. The dust jacket is neatly priced-clipped at the lower front flap with minor loss at the spine head, even spine toning, and light soiling to the rear face. The jacket is newly fitted with a clear, removable, archival cover. The book is housed in a quarter black Morocco Solander case featuring raised and hatched spine bands bracketed by double blind rules. The balance of the Solander is covered in raw black silk. Below the gilt-printed author, title, and volume number compartments, the fifth spine compartment is gilt-stamped “SIGNED SET”. Despite the “SET” claim, this book came to us singly from a substantial private collection. Condition of the Solander is better than near fine, with only incidental shelf wear.
Norman McGowan was Winston Churchill's valet for three years, from 1949 to 1952, spanning Churchill's final two years as Leader of the Opposition through the first year of Churchill's second and final premiership. Churchill returned to 10 Downing Street the year he inscribed this book with McGowan attending him, after his Conservatives won a majority in the October 1951 General Election.
At 17, in 1942, McGowan joined the Navy, serving for the rest of the Second World War. After he was demobilized in July 1946, McGowan became a manservant in Lord Derby's house at Knowsley, facilitated by "family connections through working on the estate" that outweighed his lack of experience. A few years later, Churchill was the guest of Lord and Lady Derby at Knowsley when his already-overtaxed, aging butler was injured. McGowan was suggested, once again connection outweighing experience.
After an interview with Mrs. Churchill, and a wait, McGowan received a letter calling him to report "for one month on trial" without the company of his young wife. Then-25, McGowan "reported for duty at Chartwell" in September 1949. His interview with Churchill was decidedly Churchillian: "I was shown into the book-lined study... Mr. Churchill... stood up and came forward to shake hands.... 'So you are Norman,' he said. 'You are going to look after me.' For a brief moment he studied me with a piercing, all embracing glance. Then he said: 'I think we will get along all right.'" That was it. McGowan began with only two instructions from Mrs. Churchill: "See that he is on time for meals and appointments. See that he wears an overcoat when it is cold." Both missions proved quite difficult to achieve. Nonetheless McGowan would closely attend and travel with Churchill for the next three years, leaving only because "Domestic reasons made it... impossible to be so constantly absent from my own home and family."
In 1958, McGowan published a reverential memoir, My Years with Churchill, in which his stated aim was to remedy "a strange and inexplicable shortage of words" about "Churchill the human being." In his book, McGowan recalled "As a man of twenty-five I went into my employment quite open-minded.... As a member of the restless, somewhat cynical post-war generation Mr. Churchill did, indeed, stand for many things which I believed old-fashioned and outmoded in the middle of the twentieth century." In summarizing the devoted regard he developed for Churchill, McGowan observed "An eighteenth century French wit said 'no man is a hero to his valet.' In the twentieth century one was."
References: Cohen A240.4(I).e; Woods/ICS A123(ba); Langworth p.264; Gilbert, Vol. VIII; McGowan, My Years with Churchill. Item #008781
Price: $7,500.00