This Item Has Been Sold
ARMS AND THE COVENANT
-Signed First English Edition in Dust Jacket-
1938
First English Edition
George G. Harrap & Co. [London]
Biblio: (Cohen A 107.1) (Woods A44a)
8vo (466 pages)
Hardcover (with Dust Jacket) [Dark blue cloth]
Item Number: 204004
Collector's Guide
Arms and the Covenant captures Churchill’s initial alarms against Hitler and the Nazis in forty-one prophetic pre-war speeches delivered from 1928-1938, edited by his son Randolph. Published in the U.S. under the title While England Slept, the book, according to FDR, sat on his White House nightstand in 1938.
Description
This First English edition, in the extravagantly rare dust jacket, is signed and dated in ink on the front free endpaper: “Winston S. Churchill, August 1938,” on the eve of the Munich Agreement and just months after publication.
The dust jacket is spotted lightly throughout, more pronounced across the rear face, but otherwise maintains its pale blue luster. The jacket spine has been reinforced on the verso with tape at the head and tail, and at the upper spine folds, but not visibly. The jacket spine has darkened a bit and has a light crease down its length. There is toning to the half-title that delivers a perfect x-ray of the signature page, and toning to the rear second free endpaper, as is common with this book. The contents are otherwise fine.
A very important book with a signature and a date drenched in drama.