A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, a full set of four first editions finely bound in three-quarter Morocco goatskin.
London: Cassell and Company, Ltd., 1956. First edition, first printing. Full leather. This is a finely bound full, four-volume British first edition, first printing set of Churchill’s sweeping history and last great work. The three-quarter dark green Morocco goatskin bindings feature raised spine bands, three spine compartments gilt-printed with title, volume, and author, the other three compartments featuring gilt lions rampant. There are double gilt rules at the spine head and tail and corded gilt rules in the title and author compartments. The covers feature marbled paper-covered boards with double blind rule transitions between the Morocco spine and corners and the marbled paper.
Condition of this set’s bindings is fine, square, clean, tight, and unfaded with sharp corners and no reportable exterior wear or defects. Shelf presentation is quite handsome. The first printing contents are very good plus, with no previous ownership marks. Spotting appears confined to the text block edges of three of the volumes and the first and final leaves of Volumes III & IV. The original red topstain is sunned to pink across all four volumes. A laid in receipt and description indicates that this set was purchased from the London shop of one of the world’s most prominent booksellers in January 1998.
Churchill's four volume epic, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, was published between 1956 and 1958. The work traces a great historical arc from Roman Britain through the end of the Nineteenth Century, ending with the death of Queen Victoria. Perhaps not coincidentally, this is the very year that saw Churchill conclude his first North American lecture tour, take his first seat in Parliament, and begin to make history himself. The work itself was two decades in the making. The Churchillian conceptions that underpinned it were lifelong. The cultural commonality and vitality of English-speaking peoples animated Churchill throughout his life, from his Victorian youth in an ascendant British Empire to his twilight in the midst of the American century.
Churchill began A History of the English-Speaking Peoples in the 1930s, completing a draft of "about half a million words" which was set aside when Churchill returned to the Admiralty and to war in September 1939. The work was fittingly interrupted by an unprecedented alliance among the English-speaking peoples during the Second World War - an alliance Churchill personally did much to cultivate, cement, and sustain. The interruption continued as Churchill bent his literary efforts to his six-volume history, The Second World War, and then his remaining political energies to his second and final premiership from 1951-1955.
Reference: Cohen A267.1(I-IV).a, Woods/ICS A138(aa), Langworth p.315. Item #008919
Price: $1,200.00