Books

First edition, first impression, very scarce in the jacket, of Churchill's collection of essays on the outstanding figures of his age, including reflections on T. E. Lawrence, Trotsky, and Hitler; "it is, of course, an important part of the canon and belongs in every library" (Langworth, p. 179). On receiving his advance copy, Neville Chamberlain wrote to Churchill immediately: "How you can go on throwing off these sparkling sketches with such apparent ease & such sustained brilliance, in the midst of all your other occupations is a constant source of wonder to me" (quoted in Cohen). Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, top edge blue. With dust jacket. With 21 photographic plates. Near-contemporary ownership signature to front free endpaper. Spine very lightly sunned, faint offsetting from old insert to pp. 64-5; unclipped jacket with slight sunning and rubbing to spine and a few nicks at extremities: a near-fine copy in very good jacket. Cohen A105.1.a (with first state uncorrected text on p. 53); Woods A43(a). Richard Langworth, A Connoisseur's Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill, 1998.