The Collected Works of Sir Winston S. Churchill, complete in 34 volumes.
London: Library of Imperial History, 1974. First edition, only printing. Hardcover. This is a full, 34-volume set of Churchill's Collected Works. The Collected Works of Sir Winston Churchill was a lavish production timed to commemorate the centenary of Churchill's birth. Most sets were bound in natural calfskin vellum with 22 ct. gold titling, the Churchill Arms in gilt on the front cover, gilt page edges, green marbled endpapers, green and gold head and foot bands, and satin ribbon markers. The contents were printed on special 500-year archival paper. Some understandably quibble about the editions used and revisions included in the Collected Works. Few contest that the set testifies with beautiful authority to the life’s literary labors of the man who “already in 1900” had “written as many books as Moses” and did not stop writing them for the next half century “except when momentarily interrupted by war”. (WSC, remarks of 4 July 1950) Three years after his gently irreverent comparison of his authorship to that of Moses, Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The 34 volumes of the Collected Works are virtually a library unto themselves. The set consumes nearly five feet of shelf space and weighs roughly 100 pounds, comprising five million words printed on 19,000 pages. The Collected Works publisher intended to produce 3000 sets. However, “the venture collapsed and the Library of Imperial History went into bankruptcy. According to Richard Langworth’s research, the print run never exceeded 2000 copies and only 1750 sets were ever published” given that sets were apparently “only bound as ordered.”)
Here is a full but imperfect set, structurally sound with superficial aesthetic flaws for a collector/reader who wants the content and shelf presence of a Collected Works set at a considerable discount from the usual market price.
All of the bindings are square and tight, the only appreciable structural defect being a half inch strip loss of the vellum at the heel of the Volume III (The River War) spine. This loss is neither a structural threat nor a significant aesthetic detraction, since it exposes similarly colored binding cloth beneath. The calfskin vellum was meant to tone and mellow with age. In this set the vellum bindings have toned – particularly the spines - sometimes significantly and unevenly through the set. Another challenge inherent to the vellum bindings is some separation of the vellum from the underlying boards. We note little such separation in this set.
The contents of all 34 volumes - likely owing to the protection of the original slipcases - appear uniformly bright and clean. The only internal frustration is wrinkling of many of the green satin ribbon markers and loss of a few of their ends, where they were left protruding at the bottom of the text blocks. All but one of the volumes feature the same previous owner bookplate affixed to the front pastedown, and the one missing the plate clearly had it previously affixed. Every indication is that this is a lifelong, mated set.
The original green leather slipcases are all present, intact, and have admirably done their job protecting the contents and boards of their constituent volumes; this is their virtue. The bad news is that most of the slipcases are quite scuffed and worn, including some superficial delamination where they adhered to one another on the shelf.
Please note that this large, heavy set will be packed with care and shipped at cost, depending on the buyer's destination and shipping preference.
Reference: Cohen AA1, Woods/ICS AA1, Langworth pages 362-369. Item #008987
Price: $1,850.00