91 GIFTS 128CHURCHILL, Winston. Marlborough: His Life and Times. London, 1933-38. Four volumes. Octavo, modern full crimson morocco gilt. $4000 First English trade editions, with hundreds of maps and plans (many folding), plates, and document facsimiles, handsomely bound by Bayntun. Churchill wrote this history of his famous ancestor to refute earlier criticisms of Marlborough by Macaulay. “It may be his greatest book. To understand the Churchill of the Second World War, the majestic blending of his commanding English with historical precedent, one has to read Marlborough. Only in its pages can one glean an understanding of the root of the speeches which inspired Britain to stand when she had little to stand with” (Langworth, 164). Published simultaneously with a signed limited edition. Woods A40a. A fine, very handsome set. “I Drew These Tides Of Men Into My Hands And Wrote My Will Across The Sky In Stars” 129LAWRENCE, T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom, A Triumph. London, 1935. Large quarto, original gilt-stamped brown cloth, dust jacket. $1750 First trade edition of Lawrence’s account of his legendary part in the Arab rebellion against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Even though “Seven Pillars is remarkably accurate as a military history,” its blending of epic heroic adventure, psychological insight, and spiritual transformation make it the literary treasure that Lawrence intended it to be, deserving Winston Churchill’s praise as one of “the greatest books ever written in the English language” (Wilson, 55). Preceded only by the very scarce private printing of 1926 and the 1935 limited edition. Without original cardboard box. Book in near-fine condition with slight traces of edge wear and small spot of staining to spine; in a very good, toned dust jacket with a few edge chips and short edge tears, one with tape repair to reverse. A pleasing copy, in the uncommon dust jacket. “He Never Rode Off Any Field Except As A Victor”
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