BAUMAN RARE BOOKS 72 “He Never Rode Off Any Field Except As A Victor” 104CHURCHILL, 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. Originally intended to run about 200,000 words, the work eventually exceeded one million. “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. A fine, very handsome set. “This Is Not History: This Is My Case” 105CHURCHILL, Winston. The Second World War. London, 1948-54. Six volumes. Octavo, original black cloth, dust jackets. $1700 First English editions of Churchill’s WWII masterpiece, part history and part memoir, written after he lost reelection as Prime Minister, in the original dust jackets. With the Second World War, Churchill “pulled himself back from humiliating [electoral] 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. Text with foxing in a few places and along text block fore-edges, cloth faintly rubbed; dust jackets quite crisp with mild toning to spines and along edges, a few rubs to back panel of last volume, mild foxing to flaps. An extremely good set.
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