Description

A rare combo set of both First and Second States of the First English Softcover edition (per Cohen). The First State has the misnumbered page 71 (numbered I) and the Appendix and Index at rear. The Second State has page 71 numbered correctly, plus a Second Appendix replacing the Index at rear.

The front cover of the First State volume has almost 2 inches of fractional loss along the upper right edge. The spine is intact, with the inevitable creasing and edge-wear. The pages are browned, some are chipped, as per usual. The contents are otherwise quite fine.

Bibliographer Ronald Cohen notes five distinct issues of the First Softcover Edition that bore the promotional imprints of individual regional British newspapers. The Second State copy here is the rare “The Yorkshire Observer” issue. It has survived well, given that these softcover volumes were printed on cheap, acidic paper, which deteriorated quickly. The covers, front and rear, and the spine are intact, with creases, a tear, and fractional losses to the front cover, and rear cover loss of approximately one-inch square at the lower left corner. The covers have darkened with age but retain bright color. The pages are browned, as per usual, but the contents are otherwise quite fine, if lightly foxed on the prelims.

These two extremely perishable rarities are preserved in a single purpose-built blue cloth solander with leather spine label. Laid-in also is an extremely rare photocopy of the Campaign Leaflet authored by Winston Churchill that is advertised on the front inside cover of THE PEOPLE’S RIGHTS. “Of this folded leaflet,” writes Cohen in his Churchill bibliography, “Woods said: ‘There is, however, no proof that this was ever published.’ It does exist, concluded Cohen. I have been able to examine a photocopy of the leaflet.”