Marlborough: His Life and Times, 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 full, four-volume, jacketed set of four British first edition, first printings, a respectable set, featuring very good or better volumes in good plus or better, unclipped, first printing 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.
In this set, all four bindings remain square and tight with only light wear to extremities. All retain strong spine color. We note some very mild toning to the Volume I binding and to the Volume II and III spine ends consistent with small dust jacket losses. The contents of all four volumes are clean and crisp and bright internally. We find no previous ownership marks. Trivial spotting appears confined to the Volume I prelims and the Volume II page edges. The top edge gilt remains bright with age-toning to the otherwise clean fore and bottom edges. All four dust jackets are unclipped, definitively confirming first printing. Losses are minor, to the rear face Volume I corners, the Volume II lower spine, the Volume III spine head and upper front corner, and the Volume IV spine head. The Volume I jacket spine retains the original gray color, which compensates for overall soiling and a vertical spine crease. The Volume II-IV jackets show spine toning, with staining to the Volume IV lower spine. 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 #008993
Price: $1,400.00