90 BAUMAN RARE BOOKS 126CHURCHILL, Winston. A Speech by the Prime Minister... in the House of Commons. August 20th, 1940. London, 1940. Octavo, original gray wrappers. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $1750 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). Woods A60a. Mild discoloration to one spread from metal staples; wrappers with light foxing, one tiny closed tear to front panel. An extremely good copy. “This Is Not History: This Is My Case” 127CHURCHILL, Winston. The Second World War. London, 1948-54. Six volumes. Octavo, modern full red morocco gilt, raised bands. $4500 First English editions of Churchill’s WWII masterpiece, part history and part memoir, written after he lost reelection as Prime Minister, very handsomely bound by Bayntun. With the Second World War, Churchill “pulled himself back from humiliating defeat in 1945, using all his skills as a writer and politician to make his fortune, secure his reputation, and win a second term in Downing Street” (Reynolds, xxiii). “Winston himself affirmed that ‘this is not history: this is my case’” (Holmes, 285). Churchill was re-elected to the post of Prime Minister in 1951. Although preceded by the American editions, the English editions are generally preferred for their profusion of diagrams, maps, and facsimile documents. Woods A123b. Scattered spots of faint foxing to first few leaves of Volume I, contents otherwise very clean. A fine set. “Never In The Field Of Human Conflict Was So Much Owed By So Many To So Few”
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