So what gets us excited about an ex-library paperback book with a separated rear cover, no front cover, and a badly worn spine?  Normally, nothing.  But we make exceptions when the copy happens to be a previously unknown issue of a first edition of Churchill’s first book.  We even get excited.

Recently, we were privileged to discover a previously unknown issue of a first edition of The Story of the Malakand Field Force.  Specifically, we discovered that there is a wraps issue of the Canadian first edition, previously unknown to both bibliographers and the Churchill collecting community.

The first edition that many of us know well – the British Home Issue – is bound in medium green cloth with gilt stamped spine print, spine title box horizontally framed with gilt rules, and a blind stamped title box on the upper right front cover with gilt stamped title within.  With only a few more than 1,900 copies bound, this first edition of Churchill’s first book is both elusive and desirable.  Moreover, it is one of the few Churchill books that did not have a concurrent U.S. first edition.

The publisher did also issue a distinctive Colonial Library issue concurrent with the first edition.  These were bound both in paper wraps (for understandable reasons, few examples of the wraps binding survive) and in a hardcover cloth binding with the striking Longmans Colonial Library design featuring a schooner at sea filling the front cover.  While the first edition saw only one printing, the Colonial Library issued no fewer than 10 different editions, printings, and binding variations for the very small number of Colonial issues ultimately produced from 1898 to 1901.

Until now, rarest of all was the Canadian issue of Colonial Library sheets, bound in a Colonial Library-style binding, differentiated by the Canadian publisher’s name on the spine and title page.  Per Churchill bibliographer Ronald I. Cohen, there were no more than 250 Canadian copies issued.  Today, these Canadian copies of The Malakand Field Force are among the scarcest books in the Churchill canon.  We have seen only a small handful of copies in original bindings.

What was unknown until now is that, apparently, some of these 250 Canadian copies were issued as softcover (“wraps) issues.

Like its hardcover counterpart, this only known surviving copy of the wraps Canadian issue has a title page cancellans bearing the Canadian publisher’s name.

Perhaps even more improbable than its survival is this copy’s Irish provenance.  The final page of text bears the circular ink stamp of a library in Nass, County Kildare and is dated 1994.

In contrast to its hardcover Canadian counterpart, the wraps issue features the British publisher’s name on the spine.  The rear cover – both the recto and verso – seem to have content identical to that of the wraps colonial edition.  Alas, this singular Canadian wraps issue lacks the front cover, so a further bibliographic mystery waits to be discovered.

In interviews, I’ve often been asked “What’s your favorite book that you’ve offered?” My usual answer is “My favorite is never one we’ve already offered, but one we have not seen yet.”  So here’s my newest favorite.

Churchill is one of the most studied figures of the twentieth century.  His official biography is the Guinness record holder for world’s longest.  Ron Cohen’s three-volume bibliography of Churchill’s works is among the most thorough and exhaustive bibliographies we have seen for any author.  So popular and well-known is Churchill that there is even a bookseller (albeit of questionable sanity) that makes a business of specializing in works by and about him.  And yet there are still new things to discover.  Even about Churchill’s first book.

So – good hunting and happy reading!

Today we write about a truly extraordinary item that will be featured in our forthcoming fall catalogue.

This first edition, final printing set of Churchill’s second book, The River War, is not only the sole set known to retain the original dust jackets, but is also signed and dated by Churchill on 25 August 1900, during the period when he was campaigning for his first seat in Parliament.

This set comes to us from the collection of Churchill’s bibliographer, Ronald I. Cohen. It is difficult to overstate the singularity and appeal of this set which, jacketed and signed, is among the rarest of prizes in the Churchill canon. All the hyperbole we might conceive pertains.

The Dust Jackets

These two dust jackets are the only known surviving examples of the dust jackets for the first edition. As such, this is the earliest known work by Churchill for which first edition dust jackets survive.

A photocopy of this very Volume I dust jacket is featured on p.29 of Richard Langworth’s A Connoisseur’s Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill. The dust jackets are printed on thin, manila stock and printed in black, exactly duplicating the print and illustrations of the bindings, including the Mahdi’s tomb on the lower spines and gunboat on the lower front
covers. The jacket flaps and rear faces are blank.

These dust jackets, of course, belong to a first edition, third printing set. Given that the bindings of all three printings are identical, and that only seven months separate the first and third printings, it is probable to the point of near certainty that the dust jackets for all three printings were identical. There is neither reason nor – given that these are the sole surviving examples – data to indicate a contrary conclusion.

That these dust jackets are the sole known surviving examples also seems reasonable. At the time of publication, it was customary for booksellers to discard the dust jackets prior to shelving the books for sale. This custom would only have been encouraged by the exceptionally handsome, illustrated bindings of this particular edition. Moreover, the dust jackets are printed on thin stock which, wrapped around these particularly thick and heavy volumes, must have proven quite prone to damage and subsequent discard.

The understandable impulse to re-allocate these sole surviving first edition dust jackets to a truly fine first printing set is a temptation that Mr. Cohen laudably resisted, given the magnificent state of these bindings and the fact that this set is also signed and dated by Churchill in the year of publication.

The Signature

Churchill’s dated signature in The River War would not customarily be an afterthought, but the presence of the original dust jackets makes this set the exception.

The author’s signature in black ink in two lines on the front free endpaper verso (facing the half-title recto) reads “Winston S. Churchill | 25. August. 1900.” The ink remains distinct, showing minimal age-toning or spreading.

Such early signatures in Churchill’s early works are scarce, and doubly so when dated. Though he would become one of the great leaders of the 20th Century, it was a still markedly Victorian Churchill who signed and dated this quintessential 19th century work at a time of momentous transition in his life. When Churchill inked his name in this set, he was on the cusp of the political career that would dominate the next six decades of his life and fundamentally shape the world he occupied.

Time and Place

Nearly all of the accomplishments that made Churchill an indelible part of history lay ahead of him when he signed this set of books.

On 25 August 1900, the day this set of The River War was signed, Churchill was just 25 years old, campaigning hard in Oldham, where he would win his first seat in Parliament on 1 October 1900.

On 12 August 1900, Churchill wrote to his mother, Lady Randolph Churchill: “I must concentrate all of my efforts upon Oldham. I am going to have a thorough campaign from the 20th to the 23rd of this month, speaking at 2 or 3 meetings every night upon the African question, and trotting through Cotton Mills and Iron works by day…” Electioneering apparently lasted longer than Churchill planned; on 27 August the Prince of Wales wrote to Churchill: “…You are I suppose busy electioneering…”

On Saturday, 1 September 1900, Churchill wrote again to his mother: “I enclose a report of my Beverly speech wh[ich] was about the best platform effect I have ever produced. I flattened out all the interrupters in the end to the delight of the audience…. I go to Paris Sunday afternoon with Sunny.” The “Sunny” to whom Churchill referred was his cousin, the Duke of Marlborough, with whom, along with Ivor Guest, Churchill went to Paris for a few days to the International Exhibition.

Thirty-seven days after he inscribed this set on the hustings in Oldham, Churchill won his first seat in Parliament partly on the strength of his status as a veteran and British hero of the Boer War. Before he took his seat, Churchill made his first lecture tour of the U.S. and Canada, which was intended to improve his finances during a time when Members of Parliament received no salary for their service.

While Churchill was still in Canada, Queen Victoria died. In a 22 January 1901 letter, Churchill wrote to his mother, Lady Randolph:

… So the Queen is dead. The news reached us at Winnipeg and this city far away among the snows…

The end of Queen Victoria’s 64-year reign would also see Churchill close his 19th-Century career as a cavalry officer and war correspondent adventurer. The Queen’s funeral took place on 2 February 1901 – the same day Churchill sailed from New York on the SS Etruria for England to take the seat he had won in Parliament. Churchill’s more than six decades-long Parliamentary career – still nascent when he signed this set – would span the Boer War to the Cold War with two world wars in between, and see the world of imperial cavalry charges so vividly recounted in these books almost inconceivably yield to the world of global superpowers and nuclear weapons.

The Edition

This is a fitting work for Churchill to have signed on the cusp of his Parliamentary career. This third printing of The River War is not only by far the scarcest issue of the first edition, but also the last unabridged issue to this day. All three first edition printings are bibliographically identical, issued respectively in November 1899, February 1900, and June 1900. Only 140 copies of this third and final printing were ever made available. (The balance were destroyed by the publisher.)

Mohammed Ahmed was a messianic Islamic leader in central and northern Sudan in the final decades of the 19th century. In 1883 the Mahdists overwhelmed the Egyptian army of British commander William Hicks, and Great Britain ordered the withdrawal of all Egyptian troops and officials from the Sudan. In 1885, General Gordon famously lost his life in a doomed defense of the capitol, Khartoum, where he had been sent to lead the evacuation of Egyptian forces. Though the Mahdi died in 1895, his theocracy continued until 1898, when General Kitchener reoccupied the Sudan.

With Kitchener was a very young Winston Churchill, who participated in the decisive defeat of the Mahdist forces at the battle of Omdurman in September 1898.

In this book about the British campaign in the Sudan, Churchill – a young officer in a colonial British army – is unusually sympathetic to the Mahdist forces and critical of Imperial cynicism and cruelty. This work offers us the candid perspective of the future great man of the 20th century from the distinctly 19th century battlefields where Churchill learned to write and earned his early fame. Here is a chief architect of the Second World War involved in what has been called the last “genuine” cavalry charge of the British army.

This work – and in particular this edition – is as important and desirable as any in the Churchill canon. The two massive volumes of the first edition are compelling in every respect. Aesthetically they are lavish and striking; the two large, weighty volumes are beautifully decorated with gilt representations of the Mahdi’s tomb on the spines and a gunboat on the front covers. Internally, they are equally appealing, being profusely illustrated with images, maps, and plans. From a collector’s standpoint the edition is scarce; all three printings of the first edition total only 2,646 sets.

Last but not least, the text is not only arresting, insightful, powerfully descriptive, and of enduring relevance, but also unique to the first edition, which is the only unabridged edition ever published. In 1902 Churchill (by then more mindful of political exigencies) revised and abridged his text, excising much criticism of Kitchener. All editions published since this third and final printing of the first edition are based on the 1902 abridged text.

Condition

The overarching context for any description detail is that this set is both jacketed and inscribed, and thus truly singular.

Attending to the mundanities of a detailed condition report, we would grade this set as near fine plus in good dust jackets. Both dust jackets are substantially complete, with all illustrations and printed text intact, but nonetheless with perimeter losses, overall wrinkling and wear, and minor soiling.

The Volume I dust jacket shows losses at the front hinge extremities to a maximum depth of approximately .75 inch, lesser chipping to the balance of the edges, vertical creasing with a few tiny losses at the front hinge, a 1.5 inch closed tear at the lower rear hinge, creasing and closed tears at the flap folds, very light spine toning, and a light stain to the front face.

The Volume II dust jacket shows losses at the spine ends to a maximum depth of one inch, lesser chipping to the balance of the edges, closed tears that extend into “THE” in the upper front face title lettering, some splitting and fractional loss along the rear hinge, short tears and minor loss at the flap folds, very light spine toning, and light soiling.

Both dust jackets are, of course, protected beneath removable, archival quality clear covers.

The blue cloth bindings of both volumes are, as one would expect, exceptionally bright and clean, with entirely unfaded color and vividly bright gilt on both the spines and front covers. Volume I, which bears the author’s dated signature, shows a little wrinkling to the spine ends, trivial shelf wear to the lower edges, and bumps to the lower corners. The binding remains fully attached, but a little tender at the front hinge. The Volume II binding likewise shows a little wrinkling to the spine ends, just a hint of mottling of the blue color at the bottom edges, and minor corner bumps.

The contents of both volumes remain unusually bright, with modest spotting substantially confined to the prelims and otherwise bright page edges. The original black endpapers are intact, as are all illustrations, maps and plans. All of the folding maps are pristine and properly folded, with no tears or losses. All photogravure portraits, including the frontispieces, are intact, as are their original tissue guards. We find no previous ownership marks other than the author’s Volume I signature.

Bibliographic reference; Cohen A2.1.b, Woods/ICS A2(a.3), Langworth p.29.

Provenance

This set has resided in the personal collection of Churchill’s bibliographer, Ronald I. Cohen, for nearly three decades. The set was sold by Sotheby’s in the same auction which saw sale of a jacketed first British edition, later printing of Savrola (Churchill’s third published book) signed by Churchill on the same date. This copy of Savrola is now held by the University of Illinois in its Mortlake Collection.

We can reasonably speculate that perhaps both this set of The River War and the companion signed and jacketed Savrola were presented by Churchill to the same Oldham supporter, from whose library they eventually made their way to the 1966 Sotheby’s auction and then eventually to Mr. Cohen (in the case of The River War) and famed British bookseller Harold Mortlake and ultimately the University of Illinois (in the case of Savrola).

Purchase

Our forthcoming catalogue, which should be available in late September, will feature this set among a large number of brand new listings, all noteworthy first edition works by Churchill in original bindings. Please let us know if you will wish to receive a printed copy of the catalogue.

Occasionally, we have the opportunity to catalogue not just books and other publications already known to history, but bits of primary source material that accrete another fragment of information or perspective to the historical record.

We have just catalogued an archive of Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Robert Cary spanning the late 1930s and the Second World War.  The archive is notable for including a late 1937 typed, signed letter from Winston S. Churchill to Cary about the defense of Singapore, as well as 1938 correspondence about the infirmities of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

by Elliott & Fry, vintage print, 1942

Sir Robert Archibald Cary, 1^st Baronet of Withington (1898-1979) was a Conservative politician. He received his education first at Ardingly College, then at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, as Churchill had done several decades earlier. Cary represented the constituency of Eccles from 1935 to 1945, then the district of Withington in Manchester from 1951 until his retirement in 1974. A veteran of the First World War (fighting with the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards), during the Second World War Cary was parliamentary private secretary to the Civil Lords of the Admiralty from 1939 to 1942, and to the Secretary of State for India and Burma from 1942 to 1945. Upon Churchill’s defeat in the 1945 General Election, Cary was knighted in Churchill’s resignation honours on August 14. Cary and Churchill shared a concern for global security, as evidenced not only by Churchill’s 15 November 1937 letter to Cary regarding Singapore, but also by Cary’s numerous queries to the Prime Minister in the House of Commons in 1937 on topics including expansion of the Royal Air Force and the reform and recruiting needs of the Army. From 1951 to 1955, during Churchill’s second premiership, Cary was private secretary to the Lord Privy Seal, and also Leader of the House of Commons. He was made the first Baron of Withington in 1955 in Churchill’s final year as Prime Minister.

Cary’s archive consists of three ruled paper journals measuring 12.75 x 8 inches, bound in quarter red cloth spines over green boards.

One, labeled on the front cover “Daily Journal 1938, contains nine typed, signed pieces of correspondence to Cary from that year, as well as newspaper clippings.

Most notable among this correspondence are two letters.  The first is a typed, signed letter from Winston Churchill dated “15^th November 1937” on his “11, Morpeth Mansions” stationery regarding Singapore: “I entirely agree that there should be a strong Police force with a good percentage of British personnel.  The only enemy we have to apprehend is Japan, and it ought to be possible to play the large Chinese population off against the Japanese three thousand to keep them under pretty close observation.”  The letter bears Churchill’s holograph salutation “My dear Cary” as well as Churchill’s holograph signature “Winston S. Churchill”.

A little more than four years after Churchill’s letter to Cary, Singapore was to prove a nadir of Churchill’s wartime premiership.  The Japanese invasion of south-east Asia began almost simultaneously with the invasion of Pearl Harbor in early December, 1941.  Singapore was viewed as virtually impregnable – the “Gibraltar of the East”. However, her British defenders proved unprepared for the speed and ferocity of the Japanese advance. General Percival’s troops were soundly defeated in Malaya on December 11/12, 1941. Retreating to Singapore, Percival spread his men out too thinly, and many troops played no role in the final battle, from February 8-15, 1942.

On February 15, the British and Dominion troops in Singapore surrendered unconditionally to the Japanese, who took 100,000 men prisoner.  Many would never return home.  That night, Churchill broadcast to the nation.  Jock Colville recalled “The nature of his words and the unaccustomed speech and emotion with which he spoke convinced me that he was sorely pressed by critics and opponents at home.”  This would prove one of the greatest defeats of the Second World War.  The blow both to Churchill and British morale was profound and Churchill “seemed unable to turn the tide of depression.”  (Gilbert, Vol. VII, p.59)   Pressure from both the public and Parliament led to a restructuring of the Cabinet and on February 17, Churchill endured an acrimonious debate in the House of Commons. That day he had his weekly luncheon with the King, who recorded in his diary that Churchill compared the situation to “hunting the tiger with angry wasps about him”.

Also in the “Daily Journal of 1938” are five TLS from Conservative party Chairman Douglas Hewitt Hacking, 1^st Baron Hacking (1884-1950).  Of particular note is a two-page letter from Hacking dated “1^st March 1938”.

This letter is a reply to a letter from Cary in which he apparently asked that Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain make a film on foreign affairs and that Anthony Eden be brought back into the Cabinet.  Of Chamberlain, Hacking tellingly writes: “…I dare not ask him to do anything more.  I had a chat with him only yesterday, and found him… exceedingly tired…. If we are to keep him fit for the next General Election, we have got to see that he has as little extra work placed upon his shoulders as possible.”  About Eden, Hacking wrote: “I am terribly keen on this.  I realise his popularity in the country, but apart from that it would be in his own personal interests to come back into the Government, especially if he became the head of another Department of State.”

A second journal has wartime photos and postcards of both British navy ships and Winston Churchill pasted on the front cover and within, and also includes 10 pages of Cary’s holograph notes, with additional notes on House of Commons stationery, both laid in and tipped in wartime newspaper clippings, and laid in printed parliamentary papers.  Some of Cary’s holograph notes appear to be drafts of Parliamentary comments, as well as notes and 1941 correspondence and a newspaper clipping on the cotton trade.

The third and final journal is labeled “South African Journal” and appears to be a journal of Cary’s September 1938 trip to South Africa, including newspaper clippings of Cary’s opinion pieces and speeches, both before and following his trip.  Cary made his travel arrangements in May, the same month of the South African General Election that consolidated power under the United South African National Party of J. B. M. Hertzog and Jan Smuts.

We offer this archive for sale HERE.

Tickets are, by nature, ephemeral things. Nonetheless, they can hold special and enduring significance, viscerally anchoring us to a place and time and reminding us of something special.

One such place and time worth remembering occurred just over 70 years ago in Fulton, Missouri, when Winston Churchill gave a famous speech at Westminster College.

We were very pleased recently to offer an original ticket and letter of invitation to this speech, and more pleased still at where it ended up, strengthening the common cause about which Churchill spoke that day, and which was a central feature in his long life. This blog post tells the story.

Churchill’s delivered his “Iron Curtain” speech on Tuesday, March 5, 1946, coining the phrase that described the division between the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence and the West. This speech incisively framed the Cold War that would dominate the second half of the Twentieth Century: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent…. I repulse the idea that a new war is inevitable; still more that it is imminent… If we adhere faithfully to the Charter of the United Nations and walk forward in sedate and sober strength seeking no one’s land or treasure, seeking to lay no arbitrary control upon the thoughts of men… the high-roads of the future will be clear, not only for us but for all, not only for our time, but for a century to come.”

Then-President Harry S. Truman traveled with Churchill by special train from Washington D.C. for the twenty four hour overnight journey to Jefferson City, Missouri specifically to introduce Churchill in Fulton. With them was Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy. During the journey, the three men discussed recent Soviet provocations in northern Persia and Turkey. “During the morning of March 5, as the train continued westward along the Missouri river, Churchill completed his speech for Fulton. It was then mimeographed on the train, and a copy shown to Truman” who told Churchill that he “thought it was admirable” and “would do nothing but good, though it would make a stir.” (Gilbert, Vol. VIII, pp.196-197).

Upon arriving in Jefferson City shortly before noon on March 5, Churchill, Truman, and Leahy drove to Fulton, where they met and lunched with Dr. Franc L. McCluer, the College president, before the academic procession and delivery of the speech. Though the subject of the speech was of utmost gravity, Churchill began with characteristic wit: “The name ‘Westminster’ is somehow familiar to me. I seem to have heard of it before.” The speech was broadcast throughout the United States.

We were excited recently to offer an original ticket to Churchill’s speech, as well as an accompanying invitation letter signed by College President Franc L. McCluer. We had never before offered an original ticket and this is no surprise. In his invitation letter, McCluer specifically stated: “Every seat in the Gymnasium and in the Chapel at the College will be reserved. Seats are non-transferable. Since we have a long waiting list, if for any reason you are unable to use your ticket, please return it to us, or if your plans are changed at the last minute, wire us.”

Though it is difficult to understand how the holder of this ticket could choose to leave it unused, we can be glad that he did. We were able to provide this ticket to Lee Pollock of The Churchill Centre. And just a few weeks ago Lee presented the ticket and letter to British Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch, who assumed his post in January of this year. The Churchill Centre had partnered with the British Embassy in Washington to create a program entitled “What’s Next for the U.S. – U.K. Partnership?” Following the program and discussion, Ambassador Darroch hosted a celebratory dinner for guests “including senior staff of both Embassies, representatives of the U.S. State Department and selected foreign policy organizations in Washington. After toasting both Ambassadors with Churchill’s favorite Pol Roger champagne,” Lee presented Ambassador Darroch with the framed original ticket and letter we provided to The Churchill Centre.

It was a wonderful way to commemorate both the 70^th anniversary of the speech and the relationship that does, should, and must endure.

The unity of the English-speaking peoples, particularly Great Britain and the United States – was in many ways Churchill’s political and literary life’s work. Britain’s acute dependence upon the United States during and after the Second World war is well known and very much born of necessity, but Churchill’s conception of what became the ‘Special Relationship’ had roots far earlier in Churchill’s life than the Second World War.

The cultural commonality and vitality of English-speaking peoples animated Churchill from his Victorian youth in an ascendant British Empire to his twilight in the midst of the American century.  In fact, Churchill’s great four-volume work, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, was actually drafted in the 1930s. Fittingly, the half a million word draft was set aside when Churchill returned to the Admiralty and to war in September 1939.  The war would, of course, pivot on an unprecedented alliance among the English-speaking peoples – an alliance Churchill personally did much to cultivate, cement, and sustain.

Churchill, the child of an American mother and descended from British nobility on his father’s side, paid particular heed to the ‘Special Relationship’ between Britain and the United States.  Perhaps to some extent he regarded himself as a personification of that relationship.  When Churchill first addressed the U.S. Congress on 26 December 1941 he famously quipped, “I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British, instead of the other way around, I might have got here on my own.”

Among the English-speaking peoples, Churchill considered Britain and the United States in particular “united by other ties besides those of State policy and public need.”  During a wartime speech at Harvard, among the “ties of blood and history” Churchill cited were, “Law, language, literature – these are considerable factors.  Common conceptions of what is right and decent, a marked regard for fair play, especially to the weak and poor, a stern sentiment of impartial justice, and above all the love of personal freedom, or as Kipling put it: ‘Leave to live by no man’s leave underneath the law’ – these are common conceptions on both sides of the ocean among the English-speaking peoples”  (6 September 1943 speech at Harvard University).

It was of course an emerging great global threat to freedom and rule of law in the form of the ambitions of the Soviet Empire that animated Churchill’s speech 70 years ago in Fulton, Missouri.

The reinforcement and constructive application of the common conceptions of the United States and Great Britain – upon which so much of 20th Century history hinged – would continue to the very end of Churchill’s life and career.  Indeed, Churchill’s aspirations for this ‘special relationship’ are encapsulated in the title of his last published book of speeches in 1961, The Unwritten Alliance.

We are pleased that our own special relationship with The Churchill Centre made this gift possible, and we hope that, in some small way, it serves to bolster and perpetuate the special relationship between the two nations Churchill held most dear. If so, it will prove a very special ticket indeed.

We have just catalogued an inscribed book worthy of attention. This is a jacketed U.S. first edition of The Mahdi of Allah by Richard A. Bermann, a notable presentation copy, tying together three men – the author, the author of the book’s Introduction, and the person to whom this copy was inscribed. All three men would all be dramatically affected by the political ascendance of Hitler a year later. The author’s intriguing inked inscription on the front free endpaper verso in 7 lines reads: “Allah is Allah | and Mohammed is the Prophet of Allah | and the author of The Mahdi of Allah | still loves his friend | Consul Paul Schwarz. | Vienna, April 1932 | Richard A. Bermann”.

The recipient of this inscribed presentation copy, Paul Schwarz (1882-1951), was a German diplomat notable for being removed by Hitler as German Consul General in New York and for publicly criticizing the new Nazi regime. Hitler became Chancellor on 30 January 1933 and consolidated dictatorial powers by late March. In early April, Paul Schwarz became one of two diplomatic officials in the United States to be removed by Hitler (along with the German Ambassador). “Of the two, and in fact, of all the German foreign service, only Schwarz was moved to disaffiliate himself publicly from the Nazi regime.” (Paul Seabury, The Wilhelmstrasse: A Study of German Diplomats Under the Nazi Regime) “I am at odds with the bigoted policies of the new regime” Schwarz told American newspapermen on April 11. “I feel honored for I am the only German consul to be dismissed by Hitler as far as I know.” It is noteworthy that Schwarz was reportedly not Jewish. His expulsion has been partially attributed to his entertaining Professor and Mrs. Albert Einstein at tea in his private residence. After his resignation, with his diplomatic passport now worthless, Schwarz went to Montreal and returned to become an American citizen as an ordinary immigrant. Schwarz was offered employment as an investment counselor with Harlle & Steiglitz “despite the fact that he had never seen a stockmarket ticker.” Schwarz would later supply information about the Nazi regime to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the forerunner of the CIA) after it was created in 1942.

The author, Richard Arnold Bermann (1883-1939), shared his friend’s sympathies and, ultimately, his exile. Bermann was a Viennese writer and leading journalist in the German-speaking world who first rose to prominence using the pseudonym Arnold Höllriegel. Bermann became known for his articles in Der Tag and other journals, which included his observations on places such as Egypt, Palestine and Brazil. After the National Socialist takeover Bermann was dismissed from the Berliner Tageblatt because of his Jewish heritage, and his writings were banned by the Reichsschrifttumskammer (Reich Chamber of Literature). He became a co-founder of the German Academy in Exile, established in 1936 as a platform for German intellectuals in America to speak out against Hitler. Berman eventually escaped Germany, arriving in London in June 1938 and then emigrating to New York. Up to his death in 1939, he remained intensively engaged in the work of the American Guild for Cultural Freedom.

The Mahdi of Allah, originally published in Bermann’s native German, is, as the author’s subtitle describes, “The Story of the Dervish Mohammed Ahmed.” Mohammed Ahmed was a messianic Islamic leader in central and northern Sudan in the final decades of the 19th century. Claiming that Allah had selected him as the true Mahdi, he found fertile political ground in the inhabitants’ resentment engendered by the corruption of and oppression by Egyptian rulers who had long dominated the region. Economic and political problems in Egypt further strengthened the Mahdi’s hand, enabling the Mahdi’s forces and followers to occupy most of the Sudan. In 1883 the Mahdists overwhelmed the Egyptian army of William Hicks, and Great Britain ordered the withdrawal of all Egyptian troops and officials from the Sudan. In 1885, General Gordon famously lost his life in a doomed defence of the capitol, Khartoum, where he had been sent to lead evacuation of Egyptian forces. Though the Mahdi died in 1885, his theocracy continued until 1898, when the British general Kitchener reoccupied the Sudan.

With Kitchener’s forces was a very young Winston Churchill, who would participate in the battle of Omdurman in September 1898, where the Mahdist forces were decisively defeated. The young war correspondent and British cavalry officer Churchill would write his second published book – The River War – about this British campaign in the Sudan. In The River War, Churchill was unusually sympathetic to the Mahdist forces and critical of imperial cynicism and cruelty – so much so that the 1902 second edition of his book excised much of his politically imprudent criticism about Kitchener.

In 1931, Churchill wrote a four-page introduction for Bermann’s book sympathetic to the Mahdi, showing the same broadminded comprehension he had three decades earlier when he fought the Mahdi’s forces and wrote The River War: “It is interesting to know that [the Mahdi’s] operations with fire and sword through the Sudan were based on a religious enthusiasm as sincere and philanthropic as that which inspired Saint Dominic or General Booth.” This work is translated from the original German and Churchill’s introduction appears only in the British and U.S. editions. Interestingly, the British first edition bears a tipped in slip after the copyright page printed in bright red ink disavowing acknowledgement of “the claim of the Dervish Mohammed Ahmed to the sublime title of ‘The Mahdi of Allah'” in order “To avoid the possibility of causing offence to Mohammedan readers”. No such disclaimer appears in this U.S. edition, published in a country with perhaps both more robustly permissive free speech and less sophisticated cultural sensitivity.

This U.S. first edition features a substantial introduction by Winston Churchill and, as such, has been catalogued by Churchill’s bibliographers (Cohen B47.2, Woods B17). The U.S. edition is scarce in the original dust jacket and this copy is the only U.S. edition of which we are aware that is both jacketed and inscribed.

Have you ever reached into a coat pocket to find an old theatre or concert ticket, only to wish you could use it again?

At 3:00 pm on Wednesday, June 15, 1904, Winston Churchill delivered a lengthy speech in the hall of the Midland Hotel to the local Free Trade League branch of his future North West Manchester constituency. The rather remarkable little item we write about today is an original admission ticket to the meeting.

Just 29 years old, Churchill was a promising but already controversial young leader who had yet to experience either the trying failures or supreme triumphs that cemented his place in history. And he had just made one of the watershed decisions that would define the early decades of his political career and set the tone for the obdurate anti-orthodoxy in the face of personal conviction that would characterize the entirety of the six decades in Parliament that still lay before him.

Only two weeks before, on May 31, 1904, Churchill had left his father’s Conservative Party and crossed the aisle to become a Liberal. Churchill was beginning a dynamic chapter in his political career that saw him champion progressive causes and be branded a traitor to his class. Free trade was a policy issue on which he had opposed Conservative Party leadership and which had helped precipitate his defection from the party.

It would be North West Manchester that would soon provide a constituency to Churchill, even if his relationship with the constituency proved brief and fraught. In his 64-year parliamentary career, Churchill represented five different constituencies. His second – North West Manchester – was also his shortest.

Churchill’s speech of June 15, 1904 was delivered to “a meeting of business men belonging either to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce or to the Free Trade League.” His speech would be published in 1906 in the now exceptionally rare volume of his speeches titled For Free Trade (pp.82-106). Of note, in the summer of 1903, Churchill’s close friend and political ally Lord Hugh Cecil (who would serve as best man at Churchill’s wedding in 1908), helped found the Free Trade Union, which was “primarily a central propaganda body” that “maintained relations with spontaneously formed local Free Trade organisations. The most important of these was the Free Trade League of Manchester…” (P.F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism, p.276)

Churchill’s first constituency (from 1900-1906) as a Member of Parliament – Oldham – favored the Conservative policy of protectionism. Churchill’s advocacy of free trade and defection to the Liberal Party led the Oldham Conservative Association to pass a resolution that he “had forfeited their confidence in him.” Churchill was invited to stand for North West Manchester, a traditionally Conservative seat that he won as a Liberal in the 1906 General Election.

North West Manchester was “one of nine of that city’s constituencies, with a tiny electorate of just 10,000, of whom almost a third were Jewish. Churchill polled 5,639 votes with a majority of 1,241… By now a junior minister, he was almost entirely concerned with national and international affairs.” (Douglas Hall, Finest Hour #103, pp.49-50) In 1908, when Churchill was promoted to the Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade, custom required that he submit to re-election. His by-election became a test of confidence in the Liberal government. Forced to defend the Government’s policy, targeted by vengeful Conservatives, and hounded on the hustings by Suffragettes, Churchill was narrowly defeated by the Conservative candidate.

The survival of this original ticket to Churchill’s June 15, 1904 speech on the issue of the day to his future Manchester constituency seems a little remarkable. It is an evocative and precious piece of ephemera.

The ticket measures 4.5 x 3 inches and is printed in black ink on one side of bright yellow card stock. “MR. WINSTON S. CHURCHILL, M.P.” is prominently printed at the center the card and the subject of his address titled “THE FISCAL QUESTION.” Condition of the ticket is nearly perfect, with virtually no soiling or wear and retaining bright, unfaded color.

Alas, we cannot offer you the chance to use it, but this ticket is nonetheless available for purchase HERE.

Winston S. Churchill may well be one of the most well-known, studied, quoted, and collected figures of twentieth century leadership and literature.

This means that even though we are privileged to handle some of the most interesting and rare Churchill material in the world, we seldom encounter items that are truly unique, previously unknown, or potentially significant to the historical record.

The item we are writing about today is all three – an apparently singular item and a rather remarkable discovery.

This is a previously unknown publication of Churchill’s 16 October 1938 address to the American people about the Munich Agreement. Prior to this discovery, no contemporary stand-alone publication of this speech was known. There is no doubt that this publication was contemporary, as it is accompanied by a slip on Churchill’s Chartwell stationery printed: “19^th November 1938 | With Mr. Churchill’s compliments.” As we discuss in this post, it may have even been printed prior to delivery of the speech. This copy bears substantial textual and format differences from the speech as hand-emended and delivered by Churchill, and as subsequently published. Finally, it is not just the only known copy to survive of a textually unique edition, it is also signed by Churchill in bold black ink on the front cover.

The Speech

On 30 September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from meeting with Hitler in Munich to announce that he had ceded Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland to the Nazis in return for “peace in our time.”

After receiving the news, Churchill paused with a friend outside of a restaurant from which echoed the sounds of laughter. Churchill “stopped in the doorway, watching impassively.” Turning away, “he muttered ‘those poor people! They little know what they will have to face.’” (Gilbert, Vol. V, p.990)

Churchill was both weary and desperately worried. “He was sixty-three years old, and the strain of his five-year campaign… had begun to take its toll.” (Gilbert, Vol. V, p.961) As he had told the House of Commons in March when speaking about Czechoslovakia, “For five years I have talked to the House on these matters – not with very great success. I have watched this famous island descending incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf.”

Privately, Churchill’s feelings were even more deeply disturbed. He wrote to Lord Moyne on 11 September: “Owing to the neglect of our defences and the mishandling of the German problem during the last five years, we seem to be very near the bleak choice between War and Shame. My feeling is that we shall chose Shame, and then have War thrown in a little later on even more adverse terms…” Of the time, Churchill’s biographer, Martin Gilbert, wrote: “For the first time in his political career – and it was nearly forty years since he had first stood for Parliament – Churchill’s optimism deserted him. Despite his appeal in Parliament for a national revival, the events of September 1938 filled him with a deep despondency…” (Gilbert, Vol. V, p.1007)

On 16 October 1938, NBC broadcast an address by Churchill directly to the American people. It may seem odd that Churchill – merely a Member of Parliament and representative of neither his Party nor his Government – would address the people of the United States. The fact is that Churchill’s tireless campaigning for prudent rearmament and collective security had given him a voice and audience independent of his Government. By this time, it was almost as if Churchill was Leader of the Opposition, despite sharing the party of the sitting Prime Minister. Churchill now used his personal platform to redouble his efforts to rouse Britain and America.

Churchill’s speech was a boldly unequivocal statement of the situation. “As a result of the Munich debate, relations between Churchill and Chamberlain had worsened considerably.” (Gilbert, Vol. V, p.1008) Whereas Churchill might have shown a modicum of restraint even a few weeks earlier, Munich was a breaking point – for him, for Chamberlain, and for the ever worsening strategic situation in Europe. Sixteen days after Munich, Nazi Germany had not only occupied the Sudetenland, but exceeded the agreed boundaries and begun carrying out its customary Gestapo pogroms.

All of which is to say Churchill did not hold back. To convey the dire nature of the situation and set the tone, he began “I avail myself with relief of the opportunity of speaking to the people of the United States. I do not know how long such liberties will be allowed… Let me, then, speak with truth and earnestness while time remains.”

Churchill frontally assaulted both the moral and strategic infirmity of the Munich agreement. “All the world wishes for peace and security. Have we gained it by the sacrifice of the Czechosolvak Republic… the model democratic State of Central Europe… has been deserted, destroyed, and devoured… Is this the end, or is there more to come?… Can peace, goodwill and confidence be built upon submission to wrong-doing backed by force?”

Sensitive to both America’s isolationist sentiment and its proud sense of democratized progress, Churchill couched the present in terms of both the wartime threats and failures of the past and the nature of the impending future. “The culminating question to which I have been leading is whether… the world of increasing hope and enjoyment for the common man, the world of honoured tradition and expanding science – should meet this menace by submission or by resistance.”

Though he spoke of history and moral imperative, he did not eschew blunt practicality. “We are left in no doubt where American conviction and sympathies lie: but will you wait until British freedom and independence have succumbed, and then take up the cause when it is three-quarters ruined, yourselves alone?… We shall do it in the end. But how much harder our toil for every day’s delay!”

Churchill was well aware that his calls to action were pejoratively characterized as war-mongering. Hence the title of the speech – “The Defence of Freedom and Peace.” Hence also his rhetorical inoculation against the charge: “Is this a call to war? …I declare it to be the sole guarantee of peace. We need the swift gathering of forces to confront not only military but moral aggression; the resolute and sober acceptance of their duty by the English-speaking peoples…”

A year later, in September 1939, Churchill returned to the Admiralty. He replaced Chamberlain as Prime Minister in May 1940. America would not formally enter the war until December 1941, but until she did Churchill’s relationship with America and her President, and the vital material support it brought, enabled Britain to survive.

The Pamphlet

This pamphlet is in four-page folded leaflet format, the front cover as title page with text on pages 2-4, drop-head title at page 2, printer information on the lower right corner of the fourth and final page, and subject sub-headings in bold punctuating the text.

It is quite striking and unusual for a speech pamphlet publication in several respects. First, it is large, measuring 11.25 x 8.75 inches. Rather than being printed on thin, wove paper, it is printed on substantial and good quality, watermarked, laid paper. The layout features paragraph breaks for nearly every individual sentence, more analogous to the famous ‘psalm form’ in which Churchill printed his speech notes, rather than to the more conventional, condensed paragraph format of published versions. Although the printer is specified (“St. Clements Press Ltd, Portugal St., Kingsway, London, W.C.2.), no publisher is specified.

Churchill’s signature is boldly inked in black on the lower right front cover in a style we have previously catalogued spanning the 1920s to the 1940s and observed as not uncommon to his 1930s signatures, namely “WChurchill” with the final letters of his surname underscored.

Accompanying the pamphlet is a sheet of Churchill’s Chartwell stationery printed in two lines: “19^th November 1938 | With Mr. Churchill’s Compliments.” 19 November 1938 was a Saturday, which would have found Churchill staying at Chartwell for the weekend. “Throughout the spring and summer of 1938 Churchill spent as much time as possible at Chartwell.” (Gilbert, Vol. V, p.958)

The signed pamphlet and accompanying compliments slip were acquired from the descendant of the original recipient, who held a significant and diverse collection of autograph material.

Differences between the pamphlet and Churchill’s corrected speech notes and delivered speech

Churchill often made revisions to his speeches until the final moments preceding delivery, including this specific speech. Courtesy of The Churchill Archives Centre, we have reviewed Churchill’s hand-corrected delivery notes for this speech. Comparison of this pamphlet’s text to Churchill’s original speech notes reveal a number of hand-made emendations to the speech as delivered which are not incorporated into this printed pamphlet.  These differences (excepting minor and obvious spelling or transcription errors and small punctuation differences) are detailed in the table below.

Among numerous small, substantive differences between the pamphlet and the speech as delivered and later published is inclusion of two notably blunt lines which the original speech notes show were added by hand by Churchill to the final draft: “Britain must arm.  America must arm.”

Most significant among the changes to the version Churchill delivered on 16 October is the conclusion.  A substantial five-sentence passage – essentially the “hard-sell” to the American people, beginning with the line “Far away, happily protected by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, you, the people of the United States…” – appears as the final paragraph in the pamphlet but was relocated closer to the mid-point of the speech when delivered.

Speculation about the origin and publication of the pamphlet

While evidence supports a conclusion that the pamphlet was printed prior to delivery of the speech, the dated compliments slip definitively bounds the publication date.

The pamphlet features numerous and noteworthy textual differences from the speech as delivered on 16 October and versions printed subsequently, notably in its first volume publication in a work by Churchill (Into Battle in February 1941).

At this time, evidence available supports speculation that this edition was printed for Churchill prior to delivery of the speech using a late-stage draft of Churchill’s speech notes.

Evidence considered includes:

• The format of the speech is uncommonly large for a speech pamphlet and printed on unusually thick, quality watermarked laid paper.
• While a printer is noted on the lower right rear cover, no publisher is specified.
• The layout of the speech with paragraph breaks for nearly every sentence is more analogous to the manner in which Churchill laid out his speeches for delivery than the more conventional, condensed paragraph format of the final version printed in Into Battle and subsequent publications. Spacing speech lines almost as verses rather than narrative text, Churchill used a distinctive ‘speech form’ or ‘psalm form’ for his speeches for more than half a century. (Gilbert, Vol VIII, p. 1120)
• Churchill is known to have made emendations and revisions to his speeches up until the final moments preceding delivery, including this specific speech. (Churchill’s original typed notes with his hand-made emendations are held by The Chartwell Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge, and the text of these original notes is printed in Gilbert, Companion Volume V, Part 3, at pages 1216-1227.)

• Line-by-line comparison of the pamphlet speech text to the notes of the speech as delivered by Churchill reveal substantive differences between the printed pamphlet text and the speech as delivered. Many of these revisions and additions were made by hand in Churchill’s speech notes.

Typos within the speech pamphlet, as well as the numerous and substantive differences from the final text, may explain why no other copies are known. Copies may have been distributed only by Churchill. Changes made to final version of the speech not reflected in the pamphlet would ostensibly have prevented either a large print run or any subsequent editions. The notionally limited distribution, coupled with the large size and comparatively perishable nature of the publication, would help to explain why we find no record of any other copies known to Churchill’s bibliographers or collectors.

While evidence supports a conclusion that the pamphlet was printed prior to delivery of the speech, there is no doubt that it was printed not long thereafter; the presence of the dated “19^th November 1938” compliments slip on Chartwell stationery definitively bounds the publication date between mid-October and mid-November 1938.

Condition

Condition of the pamphlet is superb. We note no loss, tears, appreciable wear or soiling. A hint of toning and a horizontal crease – ostensibly from when the speech was originally posted – are the only signs of age and handling. The compliments slip on Chartwell stationery is in identical condition, showing only a neat horizontal crease and mild age-toning.

We will supply scans of the pamphlet upon request.

We are pleased to offer this singular and significant item to the collecting community HERE.

First, a downloadable version of our 2016 catalogue of Works by Winston S. Churchill Signed or Inscribed by Churchill is now available on our website. Click HERE or on the image below.

In our catalogue you will find 47 Churchill signatures spanning six decades of his life, from 1900 to 1959. You will also, we hope, find good reading in our detailed descriptions, profusely illustrated with full colo(u)r images.

As the front cover indicates, we approach Churchill with our customary reverential irreverence – fully appreciating Churchill’s magnificence of spirit, of mind, and of will that both embraced and eclipsed his imperfections.

Second, last call for complimentary VIP tickets to the forthcoming book fair in Pasadena, California…

Churchill Book Collector will be at the Pasadena Convention Center on Friday February 12^th, Saturday February 13^th, and Sunday February 14^th for the 49^th California International Antiquarian Book Fair.

This will be an impressive fair, exclusively featuring booksellers who are members of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and the affiliated International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). The ABAA is the oldest association of professional booksellers in America and includes some of the most distinguished names in the book trade. If you are able to come, please visit us in Booth #803.