A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES
-Presentation Set Signed in All Four Volumes-
1956-1958
First English Edition Set (Mixed Printings)
Cassell and Co. [London]
Biblio: (Cohen A267.1[I].d[II.b[III-IV].a) (Woods A138a)
8vo (440 pages, 350 pages, 352 pages & 346 pages. Illustrated with maps and tables.)
Hardcover (with Dust Jackets) [Red cloth]
Item Number: 211533
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Collector's Guide
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples was Winston Churchill’s last great work; a sweeping, four-volume history of England, her colonies, and the language that Churchill so venerated and ennobled in his own writings. Published nearly twenty years after Churchill composed his first draft in the late-1930s, the books were released after the war simultaneously in Britain, the U.S., and Canada over a period of three years. The original English edition was handsomely printed, the American and Canadian editions less so. Subsequent re-issues and abridgments abound.
Description
This mixed First English edition presentation set, in dust jackets, is signed in each volume: “Winston S. Churchill” and hand-dated “1959” in ink. The set was presented by Churchill to his close friend and associate Frank Clarke, who famously hosted Winston and Clementine Churchill at his Miami Beach home in January and February 1946, prior to Churchill’s March appearance at Fulton College, Missouri to deliver what would come to be known as his “Iron Curtain” speech.
Volume I is the Fifth Printing of the First Edition, dated: January 1958 on the publication page. Volume II is the Second Printing of the First Edition, dated March 1957. Volumes III and IV are both First Printings, dated 1957 and 1958, respectively.
The dust jackets are all virtually mint, unclipped, save for Volume II, which is very neatly price-clipped. The books are all slightly damp-stained, with cloth-fading along the board edges and scattered foxing to the fore-edges and prelims. The spines of Volume III and IV are very slightly creased, but the bindings are all otherwise square and tight and the contents fine.
Quebec-born Colonel FRANK W. CLARKE was the scion of a family that owned paper mills in Canada. He worked for Winston Churchill on the staff of The British Gazette during the General Strike of 1926, and was a shipowner, whose vessels served in Allied operations throughout World War II as hospital, supply and troop ships. The Churchills notably stayed at his lakeside cabin for two days of rest following the Quebec Conference.
A very personal association for Churchill and a marvelous multiple-signed set, even with the slightly later editions.