"NEVER IN THE FIELD OF HUMAN CONFLICT WAS SO MUCH OWED BY SO MANY TO SO FEW"

CHURCHILL, Winston. A Speech by The Prime Minister The Right Honourable Winston Churchill in the House of Commons, August 20th, 1940. [London: Baynard, 1940]. Octavo, original gray wrappers printed in maroon; pp. 16. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $1700.

First edition of Churchill's famous 1940 address to the House of Commons at the height of the Second World War, one of history's most stirring and influential speeches.

"Churchill's historic exhortations are equal [to the Gettysburg address] in their ringing assertion of democracy confronting the seemingly irresistible forces of tyranny… At the time when Great Britain stood alone against the weight of Nazi and Fascist aggression… the gap between destruction and survival seemed a very narrow one. In it stood nothing much but the resolution of the islanders and the indomitable figure of their Prime Minister" (PMM 424). Cohen A131.1. Woods A60a.

Only minor spotting to covers, interior quite clean. A near-fine copy.