THE SECOND WORLD WAR
-Later English Edition Set in Dust Jackets-
1984-1986
Later English Edition Set
Cassell and Co. [London]
Biblio: (Cohen A240.4([I-VI].f) (Woods A123ba)
8vo (Maps, diagrams and tables throughout)
Hardcover (with Dust Jackets) [Black cloth]
Item Number: 211568
$500.00
Collector's Guide
The Second World War, also known as Winston Churchill’s War Memoirs, won Churchill the Nobel Prize for literature in 1953. Published in six volumes that appeared over six years, the books each came out first in the U.S. under the following titles: THE GATHERING STORM (Volume I/1948), THEIR FINEST HOUR (Volume II/1949), THE GRAND ALLIANCE (Volume III/1950), THE HINGE OF FATE (Volume IV/1950), CLOSING THE RING (Volume V/1951) and TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY (Volume VI/1953).
The ensuing English editions, issued within months of the American, contained numerous corrections and even a few additional maps. The English edition is therefore considered more definitive, though today the American edition may be rarer. The set was simultaneously published by the Book-of-the-Month-Club in America, printed on the same presses as the first editions, and thus can easily be confused with them. An excellent one-volume abridgment was published in 1959; largely the work of Churchill’s research assistant, Denis Kelly, though Churchill did contribute an interesting epilogue covering the years 1945-1957.
Description
This is a very good later English edition set, identical in binding and contents to the First English edition but wrapped in the attractive later edition dust jackets that were introduced in 1964.
Volume I is designated on its publication page as: “Ninth edition, fourth impression, August 1977”.
Volume II: “Ninth edition, third impression, August 1977”
Volume III: “Fifth edition, third impression, June 1979”
Volume IV: “Fourth edition, third impression, August 1977”
Volume V: “Fourth edition, third impression, May 1972”
Volume VI: “First edition, second impression, 1981”
The books are all virtually mint, in bright, unclipped dust jackets, with the exception of Volume III, whose clipped dust jacket has browned, as is common for this particular volume for some reason. Volume V jacket has a long closed tear across the front face. The contents are fine throughout and the topstains very bright.
A nice alternative to more expensive First Edition sets.