Books

First edition, first impression, of Churchill's only volume of sustained autobiography, covering his formative years from his birth in 1874 until his election as MP for Oldham in 1900. This copy is from the collection of Churchill's bibliographer Ronald Cohen. Among his most widely-read works, it provides a highly entertaining account of his childhood, schooldays at Harrow, military training at Sandhurst, experiences as a war correspondent in Cuba, service attached to the Malakand Field Force in the North-West Frontier Province of India, charging with the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, and as a POW in South Africa during the Boer War. Overall, it gives a "witty and elegiac account of his youth shot through with regret at the decline of the social and imperial order in which he had grown up" (ODNB). This copy is in the second state of half-title and binding, without priority of issue. Provenance: Ronald Cohen, with his ownership inscription in pencil on the front free endpaper. Cohen's Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill, published in three volumes in 2006, is the authoritative source for collectors, librarians, and dealers. Octavo. Original pink cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front cover lettered in gilt in five lines, publisher's device and broad single rules to covers in blind, bottom edge untrimmed. Half-tone frontispiece and 15 other plates, folding map, maps to text. Parental gift inscription dated 1933 to front free endpaper. Spine a little sunned, very minor wear at corners. A very good copy. Cohen A91.1.c; Woods A37(a).

My Early Life is an autobiographical work by Winston Churchill. It covers his birth in 1874 to his first few years in Parliament.