INSCRIBED BY CHURCHILL TO HIS AUNT AND UNCLE IN THE MONTH OF PUBLICATION

CHURCHILL, Winston. Arms and the Covenant. Speeches by The Right Hon. Winston S. Churchill. Compiled by Randolph S. Churchill. London: George G. Harrap, (1938). Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket; housed in a custom clamshell box. $20,000.

First edition, presentation/association copy, of this collection of Churchill’s speeches on foreign affairs and national defense, inscribed in the month of publication to Churchill's uncle and aunt, “To Bertram & Nellie from Winston. June 1938.”

All but two of the speeches collected here were delivered by Churchill in the Commons in the years leading up to the Second World War. Collected by Churchill's son, Randolph, and revised a second time by Churchill, these represent some of the best written by a man who "devoted more time than any other modern orator to the preparation of his speeches" (Langworth, 190). "The finest (and most ominous) pre-war warning of Winston Churchill occurs on [its] penultimate page… Available in no other Churchill book… the last four paragraphs of that famous speech on 24 March 1938… summarize the theme of this volume, a precursor to the official theme of The Gathering Storm: 'How the English-speaking peoples through their unwisdom, carelessness, and good nature allowed the wicked to re-arm" (Langworth, 190). With a photographic frontispiece portrait. Churchill's son Randolph was the editor of this volume. Dust jacket, supplied from another copy, with publisher's sticker on spine indicating that it was intended for the Australia and New Zealand market. Cohen A107. Langworth, 191. Woods A44(a). This volume is inscribed to Churchill's maternal aunt, Margaret Nellie Ogilvy Hozier, and her husband, Bertram Henry Samuel Romilly.

Occasional light scattered foxing to preliminary leaves, as often seen. Light fading to spine. Rare dust jacket extremely good with foxing, toning to spine, a bit of wear to sticker on spine. A desirable copy with exceptional provenance.