Marlborough: His Life and Times, a full set of four British first edition, first printings in dust jackets.
London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1933. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. This is a superior, full set of four British first edition, first printings in dust jackets, featuring very good plus or better volumes in very good plus dust jackets. This British first trade edition of Winston Churchill’s monumental biography of his great ancestor, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, is physically impressive. The books measure 9.25 x 6.25 inches and are roughly 2 inches thick. Each is bound in plum cloth with beveled edges and the Marlborough coat of arms gilt on the front cover. Moreover, each volume is profusely illustrated, the contents bound with headbands, and gilt top edge. Unfortunately, the plum cloth binding of Volumes I-III proved highly susceptible to sun fading. (A different, more fade-resistant dye was used in Volume IV.) Without dust jackets, Volumes I-III are nearly always faded and jacketed first editions are scarce. Particularly scarce are first printing dust jackets for Volumes I & II. Collectors should be wary of price-clipped dust jackets, as later impression Volume I & II dust jackets state either "2nd Impression" or "3rd Impression" on the lower front flap beside the price. No such problem applies to Volumes III & IV, which each had only a single printing. Additionally, the dust jackets themselves proved highly susceptible to soiling and toning. This set’s bindings are clean, bright, tight, and notably unfaded, the spines bright as only jacketed copies can be. The only minor toning is to a shallow strip at the Volume I spine heel. Wear is trivial – minor wrinkling to the spine ends, a single gently bruised corner (upper rear cover of Volume III), and some scuffing to the bottom edge of the Volume II front cover. The contents of all four volumes are tight with a crisp, unread feel. We find no previous ownership marks in the set. Spotting is quite light for the edition, confined to the Volume I endpapers and prelims and the fore and bottom edges of Volumes I-III. Age-toning is also quite light, evident only to the Volume I page edges. All four volumes retain respectably bright to edge gilt. All four first printing dust jackets are unclipped, retaining their original front flap prices, and highly complete. Fractional loss is confined to the joint and flap fold extremities. All four jackets show minor shelf wear to extremities and spine toning, which ranges from barely discernible (Volume IV) to light (Volume III) to modest (Volumes I & II). The Volume I-III jackets show light overall soiling, most noticeable to the blank rear faces. These minor signs of age and wear aside, this is a superior set of first printing dust jackets, unusually complete with unusually good shelf presentation. All four jackets are protected beneath clear, removable, archival covers. Winston Churchill's biography of John Churchill was initially conceived a full 40 years before publication of the final volume. Marlborough ultimately took 10 years of research and writing and is the most substantial published work of Churchill's 1930s "wilderness years". This decade saw Churchill pass into his sixties with his own future as uncertain as that of his nation. Churchill may have wondered more than once if the life history he was writing would eclipse his own. Of course, it did not; the final volume was published almost exactly one year before the outbreak of the Second World War and just twenty months before Churchill became wartime prime minister. T.E. Lawrence “Of Arabia” praised it as “history, solemn and decorative.” James Lewis Garvin, editor of The Observer, wrote “I think it to be… the greatest of all your works.” When Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953, it was partly for “mastery of historical and biographical description” displayed in Marlborough. Reference: Cohen A97.2(I-IV).a, Woods/ICS A40(aa), Langworth p.166. Item #008800
Price: $3,700.00