THE PEOPLE’S RIGHTS
-First English Hardcover Edition-
1910
First English Cased [Hardcover]Edition [1 of 100 copies]
Hodder & Stoughton [London]
Biblio: (Cohen A31.1.b) (Woods A16aa)
16mo (152 pages)
Hardcover [Deep red cloth]
Item Number: 14416
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Collector's Guide
The People’s Rights collects six Churchill speeches from the 1910 General Election rebuking the Tories for their rejection of “The People’s Budget.” Originally published in simultaneous hard and softcover editions, the book is now rarely encountered in either format. In fact, this is probably the third rarest Churchill book after Mr. Brodrick’s Army and For Free Trade. It was reprinted twice in the 1970s, though even these reprints are scarce today.
Description
This is an extravagantly rare copy of the first hardcover edition in very good condition. The hardcover (“cased”) edition “consisted of only 100 copies, bound on 20 December 1909, two weeks before the softcover edition was bound,” according to bibliograper Ronald Cohen. “It is, at least, very clear,” writes Cohen, “that only a few such copies were offered for sale and that they are extremely scarce.”
The book also did not age especially well, but this is a first-rate example of the Second State, with the pagination for page 71 corrected (and an Appendix and Index at rear). The cloth is a rich, deep red, the gilt lettering is bright on the front face, though the spine has faded considerably. The binding is tight, the boards clean, if just faintly bowed, the pages faintly browned, as per usual, and there is a discreet ink gift inscription on the front free endpaper. Else fine.