We recently had the privilege of cataloguing a remarkable, inscribed first edition set of Churchill’s A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. Only one collector will have the good fortune of being this set’s next owner, but it is compelling enough to merit sharing with a wider audience. Hence this post.

This set is inscribed and dated in three volumes to Churchill’s close friend and indispensable wartime Chief of Staff, General Lord Hastings Lionel “Pug” Ismay, 1^st Baron Ismay (1887-1965). Each of the three volumes is intimately inscribed using Ismay’s nickname and Churchill’s first name.

Volume II is inscribed in five lines in black ink: “To | Pug | from | Winston | November 1956”.

Volume III is inscribed in four lines in blue ink: “Pug | from | Winston | October 1957”.

Volume IV is inscribed in five lines in black ink: “To | Pug | from | Winston | April 1958”.

The Association 

We became hand in glove and much more…”

(Churchill, The Gathering Storm, 1948)

This was Churchill’s own and ultimate tribute to his friend.

When Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940, he also assumed appointment as Minister of Defence. Ismay served as Churchill’s Chief of Staff in that capacity and others, for Churchill’s entire wartime premiership. During the war, Ismay also served as Deputy Secretary to the War Cabinet. Ismay described his role thus: “I had three sets of responsibilities. I was Chief of Staff Officer to Mr. Churchill; I was a member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee; and I was head of the Office of the Minister of Defence. Thus I was a cog which had to operate in three separate though intimately connected mechanisms.” Less formally, Ismay summarized: “I had a legitimate foot in every camp – naval, military, air, as well as political. I did not have a finger in every pie, but it was my duty to know about all the pies that were being cooked and how they were getting on.” (Ismay, Memoirs, p.168)

Ismay’s position was unique, both in the confidence he enjoyed and the scope and duration of his service. “Hundreds of Churchill’s famous minutes and the replies to them were personally handled by Ismay, who commanded the prime minister’s absolute trust. He was the essential link with the chiefs of staff… Difficult allies respected him as much as did difficult colleagues. On delicate missions abroad, amid growing responsibilities for the most secret matters, from 1940 to 1945 Ismay endured strains more continuous than any battle-commander, and sometimes equally intense. Not even Sir Alan Brooke was so exposed to the exigencies and exhaustion of intimate work with Churchill by day and by night.” Ismay was “Shrewd, resilient, accessible, emollient in diplomacy but of an unbreachable integrity.” (ODNB)

When Churchill’s second premiership began in October 1951, Ismay was first appointed Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and, swiftly thereafter, Secretary-General of NATO, a post he held from 1952 until his retirement in 1957.

Even Ismay’s early career was deeply shaped by his future Prime Minister and patron. As a young officer in India in 1910 “Mr. Winston Churchill, whom I had never met, and, as it then seemed, was unlikely ever to meet, exercised a decisive influence on my future.” Despite shock that “anyone who had started so brilliantly should have thrown it all up and gone into Parliament” Ismay was critically inspired by Churchill’s intrepid early accomplishments with both sword and pen. Ismay felt “on the whole, I could not do better than try to emulate the example of his early years” and resolved to apply himself diligently to both active service opportunities and self-education. This included close reading of Churchill’s The River War (which he would argumentatively quote to Churchill more than three decades later). (Ismay, Memoirs, pp.15-16)

Like Churchill, Ismay was educated at Sandhurst and saw early service as a cavalry officer in India. Unlike Churchill, Ismay did not leave soldiering for politics. By the early 1920s, recognition of his talents and his performance at the Staff College in Quetta ended Ismay’s regimental soldiering.   Ismay would serve the Committee of Imperial Defence in various capacities, becoming CID Deputy Secretary in 1936 and Secretary in 1938, and being promoted major-general in 1939. “Inadequacies of government policy made the months before and immediately after the outbreak of war in 1939 the most frustrating of his life.” (ODNB) But in April 1940, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain chose Ismay to assist Churchill in his role as chairman of the ministerial co-ordinating committee. A month later Churchill became Prime Minister. Ismay would be promoted Lieutenant-General in 1942 and General in 1944, and made Baron in 1947.

Both their close bond and Churchill’s reliance upon Ismay endured after Churchill’s wartime premiership. When Churchill wrote his six volume war memoirs, Ismay was his principal advisor on all military questions. (Gilbert, VIII, p.221) “With Ismay as a guide, Churchill knew that he could be certain of a careful, accurate scrutiny of his work, and the bringing in wherever necessary of other experts and helpers.” (Gilbert, VIII, p.235) Ismay proved as indispensable in this as he had in the war, providing a steady stream of substantive notes and documents, edits and amendments, recollections, and perspective. Bill Deaken later recalled “Ismay read everything on the military side. He was frequently a guest at Chartwell and at Hyde Park Gate. He loved Winston with a passion. Winston relied on his judgement. He had no military confidant except Ismay.” Gilbert, VIII, p.315)

One anecdote among many testifies to the depth of a personal relationship that underpinned and transcended shared service: Within hours of becoming Prime Minister for the second and final time on 26 October 1951, Churchill phoned Ismay, rousing him from sleep: “Is that you, Pug?” “Yes, Prime Minister. It’s grand to be able to call you Prime Minister again.” “I want to see you at once. You aren’t in bed, are you?” Ismay recalled “I put my head under a cold tap, dressed in record time, and was at 28, Hyde Park Gate within a quarter of an hour of being wakened… I was overjoyed at the prospect of serving under Churchill again.” (Ismay, Memoirs, pp.452-453)

When Churchill inscribed these books to Ismay, both men were entering their twilight, both adding final words to a lifetime of deeds. Two years after Churchill inscribed his final volume of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples to “Pug,” Ismay’s own Memoirs were published, opening with a Tribute from Churchill “to the signal services which Lord Ismay has rendered to our country, and to the free world, in peace and war. Churchill was the guest of honor at a London dinner to celebrate the publication of Ismay’s Memoirs. (Gilbert, VIII, p.1315) Both men died in 1965.

The Edition

A History of the English-Speaking Peoples is Churchill’s sweeping history and last great work. The first draft was completed just before the Second World War, but the work was not completed and published until after Churchill’s second and final Premiership, nearly 20 years later. The work traces a great historical arc from Roman Britain through the end of the Nineteenth Century, ending with the death of Queen Victoria. Perhaps not coincidentally, this is the very year that saw Churchill conclude his first North American lecture tour, take his first seat in Parliament, and begin to make history himself.

The first British edition is regarded as one of the most beautiful productions of Churchill’s works, with tall red volumes and striking, illustrated dust jackets. Churchill seems to have taken an active and detailed interest in the aesthetics of the publication. He told his doctor: “it is not necessary to break the back of the book to keep it open. I made them take away a quarter of an inch from the outer margins of the two pages and then add the half-inch so gained to the inner margin.” He was clearly satisfied with the result, remarking with pardonable exuberance “It opens like an angel’s wings.” (Gilbert, Volume VIII, p.1184) Unfortunately, as beautiful as the first editions are, they proved somewhat fragile. The dust jackets commonly suffer significant fading, wear, soiling, and spotting, and the books typically bear spotting and fading of the red-stained top edges.

To read more about the first edition of Churchill’s A History of the English-Speaking Peoples in our online Guide to Churchill’s Books, click HERE.

In recent years, several items inscribed by Churchill to Lord Ismay have been offered, but few as first edition sets in original bindings. The inscriptions would make this set special even if it were rebound and later printing, but the fact that it is first printings in original bindings makes it especially compelling.

This set is currently offered for sale HERE.

Cheers!

History is often told from the perspective of great events and the great personalities who shape them. The few who conspicuously make history are also those most likely to record it; the voices of the many who are busy living history are often lost.

That’s why an archive we have recently catalogued is so remarkable, offering an intimate, detailed, and uncommonly common perspective on the Second World War and one of its greatest figures, Winston Churchill.

This remarkable Second World War archive belonged to Churchill’s wartime nurse, Dorothy Pugh (1919-2014). It includes her inscribed copy of Churchill’s autobiography, her personal wartime diary, photographs and wartime correspondence, and later correspondence from Churchill’s official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert.

In February 1943, Churchill was struggling to recover from a series of illnesses, the most recent of which was pneumonia. Churchill’s doctor, Sir Charles Wilson (made Lord Moran that March), Dean of St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, hired a young St. Mary’s nurse to attend the Prime Minister.

Nurse Pugh’s diary records that all she knew on 19 February 1943 was “Am to go out on a case tomorrow… all very exciting.”

The next day she “Met Sir C Wilson who duly introduced me to Mr WSC met Mrs C a little later. Both of them very nice indeed… it all feels strange and unreal but no doubt I shall soon get used to it…”

By the following day, it was decided she would reside with the Prime Minister: “Am going to live in as it’s a rush to get here in the morning.” She would stay with him for several weeks, and thereafter as needed.

For the next eighteen months, Nurse Pugh would not only serve the Prime Minister in London, but also accompany him to Chequers and travel with him to both the first and second Quebec conferences with Roosevelt.

During her first week with Churchill, he gave her a copy of My Early Life inscribed: “To | Nurse Dorothy Pugh | from | Winston S. Churchill | February 1943”. Her inscribed copy of My Early Life is the 1941 first printing of the wartime Macmillan reprint from the 1930 first edition plates. Macmillan acquired the rights to several Churchill books after the original publisher, Thornton Butterworth, went under in 1940. There were ultimately four Macmillan printings of My Early Life between 1941 and 1944. The first printing is both aesthetically superior and distinctly different from the three subsequent printings, printed on thicker paper than later printings. The first printing dust jacket also differs in the Churchill titles it advertises on the rear face.

Nurse Pugh’s inscribed copy is in near fine condition except for wrinkling to the front cover binding cloth, which appears to be a binding flaw rather than the result of any subsequent damage. The dust jacket is in near very good condition, showing overall age and wear, including modest spine toning, with only minor losses to extremities.

The inscribed book is significant, but Nurse Pugh’s remarkable personal diary is what truly anchors this archive, primary source material with myriad unique glimpses of wartime history – and of Churchill himself. The diary, in superior condition in the original blue leather binding, bears entries spanning 1942 to 1946.

Nurse Pugh’s entries juxtapose movie reviews, enthusiasm for eggs, and concern for her RAF husband with first-hand accounts of Churchill and key wartime figures that range from humorous and poignant (“Bed bathed P.M…. Mrs C as an audience – not a very pleasant job – still all was well. P.M. very sweet.”) to grave import (“PM told me that Tunisia will be O.K. now.”).

Pugh’s entries interweave daily London life of rationing, air raids, and “carry on” ethos with the momentous figures, events, and decisions shaping wartime Britain. Among the “mundane” but viscerally affecting wartime entries are those from the month before she met Churchill:

An appreciation for Nurse Pugh’s unique perspective was doubtless shared by Churchill’s official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, who contacted her on 22 March 1982 asking for her recollections about Churchill. She replied on 6 April 1982 and some of her reflections were recorded in Churchill’s official biography, including her conversation with Churchill aboard the Queen Mary en route to the second Quebec conference with Roosevelt in September 1944. (See Gilbert, VII, p.950)

The three letters from Gilbert are included in this archive, as are five photographs of Nurse Pugh, among them two taken in Quebec during her travels with Churchill, as well as a Christmas 1944 letter to Nurse Pugh from her superior at St. Mary’s Hospital.

Nurse Pugh’s diary was given to her by her fiancé, Roger. In February 1942 Roger was posted. They married in May. Roger served in the RAF with the 252 Squadron, flying Bristol Beaufighters in the Mediterranean, including Libya and Greece.

Interspersed among the historic personalities and great events her diary records, it also records private moments of both fraught concern and staid resolve for her husband. Roger survived the war; they would have two children and six grandchildren. At the end of her long life Dorothy Pugh was remembered for many things – a generous nature, charity work, love of gardening and keenness for ornithology – but perhaps most for her wartime service to Churchill. Her unique experience is remarkably encapsulated and illuminated in this archive, in both Churchill’s hand and her own.

I could prattle on at length about Nurse Pugh’s perspective on wartime Britain and Winston Churchill, but since we have the benefit of her diary, I will spare you more of my prose and share excerpts from her diary entries.

In a 2013 interview by the Churchill Centre I was asked: “What story from your experience dealing in Churchill books stays with you?” I replied: “What intrigues me most these days are the speculative fractions of a story that emerge from some of the objects we handle. The story I don’t fully know…”

We had the opportunity to catalogue just such an item recently – an item that intrigues me as much for what I will never know about it as for what I do know.

This compelling little piece of history is a British War Cabinet Document Receipt from the Villa Majestic, Paris, signed by Winston Churchill on 17 May 1919 during the Paris Peace Conference.

The receipt measures roughly 5 x 4 inches, printed and stamped in purple ink on plain white stock, with autograph in both pencil and red.  The words “RECEIVED from –“ and “ADDRESSED to –“ as well as a line for “Signature” are printed in purple and the upper right corner bears the oval stamp, also in purple, of the “BRITISH WAR CABINET * VILLA MAJESTIC, PARIS *” date stamped “17 MAY 1919”.  In pencil below “RECEIVED from –“ is “B.E.D. Notice” (“B.E.D.” being the abbreviation for “British Empire Delegation”).  In pencil beside and below “ADDRESSED to –” is “The Rt Hon Winston Churchill, M.P.”  On the signature line, in red, Churchill signed “WS CHURCHILL”.

Tantalizingly, the receipt’s upper blank verso retains a fragment of the document to which it was ostensibly affixed as a receipt.

During the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, the British government delegation resided at the Hotel Majestic.  In May 1919 Churchill was serving as Secretary of State for War and Air.  Only in his mid-40s and still two decades away from becoming Prime Minister, he was nonetheless already a polarizing national figure who had held several important Cabinet positions and been a political force since the turn of the century.  In the First World War, Churchill remarkably served both in the Cabinet and at the front, nearly losing his political life in the former and his corporeal life at the latter.  Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911 until 1915, but was scapegoated for the Dardanelles tragedy and the slaughter at Gallipoli and forced to resign.  He would spend part of his political exile as a lieutenant colonel leading a battalion in the trenches.

By the war’s end, he was exonerated and rejoined the Government, initially as Minister of Munitions.  In January 1919, Churchill became Secretary of State for War and Air – the same month that the Paris Peace Conference convened.  On 17 May 1919, Churchill arrived in Paris at 2:00 am.  His meetings in Paris that day included Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson (Chief of the Imperial General Staff), Lord Alfred Milner (Secretary of State for the Colonies), Edwin Samuel Montagu (Secretary of State for India), General Maharaja Sir Ganga Singh, and Edward George Villiers Stanley (Lord Derby, British Ambassador to France).  Issues commanding his attention ranged from occupation of Jellalabad, to who would be British Military Attache in Paris, to his exhaustive efforts to secure support for anti-Bolshevik factions in Russia.

We do have a snapshot of Churchill’s disposition on the day, which might be aptly characterized as quintessentially Churchillian; Winston was described on 17 May 1919 by Sir Henry Wilson as being both “in good form” and “very mulish.”  (Diary of Sir Henry Wilson, Gilbert, CV IV, Part I, p.654)

Churchill is standing in the front row, third to the right of David Lloyd George. Sir Henry Wilson is immediately behind and to the right of Churchill.

Churchill expressed profound – and ultimately prophetic – reservations about harshly punitive terms in the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed on 28 June 1919, six weeks after Churchill signed this receipt.  On 7 July 1921, Churchill would tell the Imperial Conference in London: “The aim is to get an appeasement of the fearful hatreds and antagonisms which exist in Europe…”  Advocating a policy of reconciliation, Churchill wanted Britain to be both “the ally of France and the friend of Germany” to mitigate “the frightful rancour and fear and hatred” between France and Germany which he warned “if left unchecked, will most certainly in a generation or so bring about a renewal of the struggle of which we have just witnessed the conclusion.”

Churchill’s argument did not prevail.  The triumphant army of a bitterly resurgent Germany would set up its headquarters in the ex-Hotel Majestic after France’s conquest in June 1940, a month after Churchill became wartime Prime Minister.  The fascinating historical irony lends poignance to this humble receipt.

This item comes to us from the collection of former British book collector and book seller David B. Mayou, known for his knowledge and collection of Churchill material. Churchill’s biography literally sets a world record for length and comprehensiveness. The man led a conspicuously public life and most stories – from famous quips to great events – are already known and exhaustively discussed. Mayou’s passing without imparting any further information he may have known about this receipt means that – along with the glue and document fragment – a little mystery adheres to this receipt and it can continue to intrigue us, for which I’m strangely grateful.

We recently had the privilege to catalogue a compelling, inscribed set of Churchill’s history of the Second World War. This set belonged to the pilot who flew Churchill to England from Madeira in a flying boat on 12 January 1950 for the run-up to the February 1950 General Election.

Captain Andrew Cannon Treyer Evans (1923-2000) was an RAF pilot during the Second World War.  Evans enlisted at age 18 in 1941, earned his wings on 25 March 1942, and was demobilised with the rank of Flight Lieutenant on 25 July 1946.  During the Second World War he trained in Airspeed Oxford bombers, flew anti U-Boat patrols and gave instruction in Catalina flying boats, and flew Liberators used in troop transport.

One of the planes that Evans flew – the B-24 Liberator – was designed and built by Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego, only a few short miles from where his inscribed books now sit in our library. Of course the connection is only tangential, but that does not keep it from kindling some imagination and reflection. About the constantly changing tides of human endeavor. About the things which endure, the many which do not, and the role of chance in separating the former from the latter.

More than 18,000 Liberators were built during the war. There are reportedly only two still flying today. Happily, this set of books has also endured, and is a truly unique collection of signatures that physically connect to one of the many pivotal moments in Churchill’s long life.

Before this set passes from view into the hands of a collector, it seemed fitting to share. Hence this post.

INSCRIPTION, SIGNATURES & PRESENTATION LETTER   

Volume I is inscribed in five lines in black ink on the front free endpaper: “Inscribed for | Captain Evans | by | Winston S. Churchill | 1950”.

Volume II is signed by Churchill on the front free endpaper in black ink.

Captain Evans’ original flight log book is signed by Churchill in blue ink on the page logging his 12 January 1950 flight with Evans.

A typed presentation letter on Chartwell stationery conveying the two signed books to Captain Evans is dated “28 March, 1950” and signed by Churchill’s private secretary, Cecily Gemmell. Also included with the set is an original 13 January 1950 newspaper clipping with quotes from both Captain Evans and Churchill about the flight.

THE SET

The exceptional fine binding is newly commissioned by us from a highly skilled binder. The entire set is finely bound in full red morocco with gilt decoration and print, raised spine bands, contrasting morocco title and author panels, top edges gilt, and marbled endpapers. All seven volumes are housed in two red cloth slipcases.

Volume I is the edition available at the time of presentation – that being the first printing of the second (revised with Churchill’s many corrections) edition, published November 1949. The signed Volume II, as well as the additional four volumes comprising the set, are British first edition, first printing.

A seventh “volume” is a clamshell case housing the signed flight log book, presentation letter, and newspaper clipping.

We had Captain Evans’ book plates carefully recovered from the original pastedowns of the two signed volumes and affixed to the new pastedowns. We also had protective tissue covers tipped in preceding the inscribed Volume I page and signed Volume II page.

The overall aesthetic is lovely but, more important, should ensure that the books comfortably outlast many collectors yet to come.

THE ASSOCIATION

After the war Evans flew commercially for the British Overseas Airways Corporation, The British European Airways Corporation, and Aquila Airways Limited.

Captain Evans was piloting a flying boat for Aquila Airways on 12 January 1950 when he flew Churchill back to England from the Portuguese island of Madeira.

“Churchill had intended to stay in Madeira for several weeks, hoping to make considerable progress on the fourth volume of his war memoirs.  But while he was away, Attlee announced that a General Election would be held on February 23.”  Hence Churchill cut short his trip, leaving his wife in Madeira while he returned to London.  (Gilbert, Volume VIII, p.500)

The flight proved nearly as dramatic and uncertain as the election itself.  Poor visibility due to fog threatened to divert the landing site and caused a scramble for the reception party on the ground.

Walking ashore at the Southampton Marine Airport, Churchill told reporters: “I heard there was going to be a general election, so I thought I had better come back in case I was needed!”

The next morning, Churchill telegraphed his wife “We were lucky yesterday with fog which obligingly lifted for half an hour.”  (Gilbert, Volume VIII, p.500)  The press quoted Captain Evans: “Providence was on our side all the way, and the fog lifted at just the right time.”  Providence was not so partisan with the election, which left the Labour-led Government with a thin, five-seat majority.  Not until the next General Election, in October 1951, would Churchill’s Conservatives return to majority and Churchill himself to 10 Downing Street for his second and final premiership.

Despite the uncertainties of both the flight and the election that awaited, Churchill reportedly – and characteristically – enjoyed the journey.  The press reported that “On the journey Mr. Churchill ate a hearty breakfast and lunch” and “chain-smoked cigars most of the time.”

Churchill signed Captain Evans’ personal flight log book at the time of the flight.  Two and a half months later, on 28 March 1950, Churchill’s Private Secretary, Cecily “Chips” Gemmell (Private Secretary from 1947-1951) sent a presentation letter and signed copies of the first two volumes of Churchill’s The Second World War (the third volume would not be published until July 1950) to Captain Evans.  Gemmell’s typed, signed letter on Chartwell stationery reads:

28 March 1950.

Dear Captain Evans,

I am sorry you have not received these books before, but as you may imagine Mr Churchill has been extremely busy during the past few months.  But he has now been very pleased indeed to inscribe your two copies of his War Memoirs, as you requested, and I return them to you with his good wishes.

Mr. Churchill still recalls with pleasure his comfortable flight back from Madeira in your aircraft.

Yours Truly,

Cecily Gemmell

Private Secretary.

Captain A.C. Treyer Evans.

THE EDITION

The Second World War is Churchill’s history of the epic 20th Century struggle that was so indelibly stamped by his leadership. The six volumes of the British first edition were originally published between October 1948 and April 1954.

Seldom, if ever, has history endowed a statesman with both singular ability to make history and singular ability to write it. As with so much of what Churchill wrote, The Second World War is not “history” in the strictly academic, objectivist sense, but rather Churchill’s perspective on history. In his March 1948 introduction to the first volume, Churchill himself made the disclaimer, “I do not describe it as history… it is a contribution to history…” Nonetheless the compelling fact remains, as stated by Churchill himself, “I am perhaps the only man who has passed through both the two supreme cataclysms of recorded history in high Cabinet office… I was for more than five years in this second struggle with Germany the Head of His Majesty’s government. I write, therefore, from a different standpoint and with more authority than was possible in my earlier books.” Certainly The Second World War may be regarded as an intensely personal and inherently biased history. Nonetheless, Churchill’s work remains seminal, iconic, and a vital part of the historical record. Richard Langworth calls the six-volume epic “indispensable reading for anyone who seeks a true understanding of the war that made us what we are today.”

Publication of The Second World War became known for a rather dizzying array of corrections and what Churchill called ‘Overtake Corrections’ (still arriving after the electroplates of the first edition had been made and thereafter accumulating in anticipation of a later edition).  This second edition of Volume I of the British edition – denoted on the copyright page as “New Edition, revised and reset” – was published in November 1949, only five months after the second volume was published and more than eight months before the third volume was published.  Hence, the first printing of the revised edition of Volume I was the edition readily available when Captain Evans received his inscribed copy.

A powerful argument can be made that Adolf Hitler is the reason why Winston Churchill is so iconic.

During his long public life, Winston Churchill played many roles worthy of note – Member of Parliament for more than half a century, soldier and war correspondent, author of scores of books, ardent social reformer, implacable wartime foe, conciliatory advocate of peace and transnational unity, combative cold warrior, painter, Nobel Prize winner. So even without the Second World War, one could argue that Churchill’s extraordinary life and endeavors would remain remarkable.

Remarkable perhaps, but certainly less remarked upon. Churchill without the Second World War would be far less well-known. Churchill’s preeminence as a historical figure owes most to his indispensable leadership during the Second World War. And Hitler bears more responsibility for that war than any other single figure.

Hence, what the one man had to say about the other is fascinating. Neither man was known for a strong inclination to self-censorship.

Particularly fascinating is what Churchill had to say about Hitler in an article titled “The Truth About Hitler” published in The Strand Magazine in November 1935.

This article is fascinating not just for what it said, but for how it was considerably expurgated and tamed when published less than two years later in October 1937 in Churchill’s well-known book, Great Contemporaries. There, in the form it has become known to most readers, it was retitled as “Hitler and His Choice”.

The unexpurgated “The Truth About Hitler” in The Strand Magazine was the headline, featured article. The title and author appeared prominently in bold yellow letters within a red banner across the upper front cover. Within, the article spanned pages 10 -21 and included 24 photograph illustrations.

The opening paragraphs of this fuller, 1935 version contain an entire paragraph about the question of whether “history will pronounce Hitler either a monster or a hero. It is this which will determine whether he will rank in Valhalla with Pericles, with Augustus, and with Washington, or welter in the inferno of human scorn with Attila and Temerlane. It is enough to say that both possibilities are open at the moment.” This paragraph, excised from the 1937 version, concludes: “If, because the story is unfinished, because, indeed, its most fateful chapters have yet to be written, we are forced to dwell upon the dark side of his work and creed, we must never forget nor cease to hope for the bright alternative.”

Other small details are altered or excised, but by far the primary difference between the 1935 and 1937 versions is removal of the final six paragraphs of the former from the latter. Churchill spends four of these six paragraphs describing and excoriating the horror of Hitler’s bloody “Night of the Long Knives” purge (30 June 1934) in emotionally evocative detail, concluding: “Adolf Hitler took upon himself the full responsibility…. I call the slaughter of a human being in peace without trial murder…”

Churchill’s closing paragraphs about Hitler clearly echo the defiant, combative, and unyielding Nazi foe Churchill would become as wartime Prime Minister less than five years after this article was published. But in 1935, Churchill was still a political outcast, out of power and out of favor. So it is all the more remarkable that The Strand Magazine would have not just printed, but overtly solicited this piece from Churchill. On 15 May 1935 Strand editor Reeves Shaw wrote to Churchill asking specifically for “an article entitled ‘The Truth About Hitler’” and specifically requested “…be as outspoken as you possibly can in your appraisement of Hitler’s personality and ambitions, and absolutely frank in your judgement of his methods.” (Gilbert, Vol. V, C.V. 2, p.1175)

Perhaps most surprising is Churchill’s harsh criticism of the German people for their complicity in Hitler’s reign. Throughout the Second World War, Churchill’s speeches are noteworthy for distinguishing the inherent virtues of peoples from the deficiencies and vulgarities of their leaders. But in the final two paragraphs of “The Truth About Hitler” Churchill extends his indictment of Hitler to the German people themselves: “But the astounding thing is that the great German People, educated, scientific, philosophical, romantic… have not only not resented this horrible blood-bath, but have endorsed it and acclaimed its author with the honours not only of a sovereign but almost of a God. Here is the frightful fact before which what is left of European civilization must bow its head in shame, and what is more to practical purpose, in fear.” Churchill’s final paragraph asks: “Can we really believe that a hierarchy and society built upon such deeds can be entrusted with the possession of the most prodigious military machinery yet planned among men?”

“The Truth About Hitler” is perhaps a window into the deep outrage and genuinely fearful concern of a quintessential man of action both caged and provoked, rattling the bars of his cell to call attention. The Churchill of 1935 had full, even prescient knowledge of the imminent danger to his country, but remained confined to the political exile of his “wilderness years” with his voice substantially relegated to the parish pulpit of periodicals rather than the bully pulpit of national leadership. The comparatively tamed and truncated version of Churchill’s profile of Hitler published in Great Contemporaries in 1937 is a marked contrast. Ironically, Churchill’s 1937 version can be seen as a more conciliatory and restrained appraisal of Hitler, perhaps reflecting Churchill’s earnest desire to avoid the war that he would fight with such ferocious resolve only a few years later.

We will provide scans of all pages of “The Truth About Hitler” in the November 1935 issue of The Strand Magazine upon request.

The folks at Castle Hill Press may know more about T. E. Lawrence than anyone on the planet.  So imagine how happy we are to announce that we will be offering Castle Hill Press Limited editions.

For a quarter century, Jeremy Wilson (Lawrence’s authorized biographer) and his wife, Nicole, have edited and published scholarly editions of Lawrence’s works and correspondence, as well as works about Lawrence’s life.  Editions published by Castle Hill Press are praised for both superlative production quality and substantive contributions to the Lawrence canon.  Churchill Book Collector is honored that Castle Hill Press invited us to offer many of their limited editions.

The fame of T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935) derives from his remarkable odyssey as instigator, organizer, hero, and tragic figure of the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, which he began as an eccentric junior intelligence officer and ended as “Lawrence of Arabia.”  This time defined Lawrence with indelible experience and celebrity, which he would spend the rest of his famously short life struggling to reconcile and reject, to recount and repress.  This time also led to the tortured writing and tortuous publication of Lawrence’s masterwork Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

Castle Hill Press has of course produced bibliographically unique and compellingly beautiful editions of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, prized by both scholars and collectors, but as the full scope of Castle Hill Press publications testifies, Lawrence’s literary and intellectual reach far exceeded the world and words of Seven Pillars.

Of Lawrence, his friend and admirer Winston Churchill said:  “Lawrence had a full measure of the versatility of genius…  He was a savant as well as a soldier.  He was an archaeologist as well as a man of action.  He was an accomplished scholar as well as an Arab partisan.  He was a mechanic as well as a philosopher.  His background of somber experience and reflection only seemed to set forth more brightly the charm and gaiety of his companionship, and the generous majesty of his nature.”  (Great Contemporaries, p. 166)

Lawrence’s published works span crusader castles and ancient Greek translation to technical manuals on high speed boats.  His published volumes of correspondence reveal his engagement with an incredibly diverse array of foremost intellectual and political luminaries of the early twentieth century.

Within the pages of Castle Hill Press limited editions is found the fullest literary measure of this “versatility of genius” consistently presented with both scholarly integrity and the aesthetic sensibilities of a fine press publisher.  Working with Castle Hill Press, Churchill Book Collector looks forward to bringing Castle Hill publications to your shelves.

Joining a trade association is not usually a stimulating and exciting event.  No parades and press announcements.  Nonetheless, Churchill Book Collector is quite excited to announce that we have been invited to join the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA).

The ABAA is the oldest association of professional booksellers in America and not only includes some of the most distinguished names in the book trade, but also supports an admirable array of preservation, education, research, and networking endeavors.

Along with becoming a member of the ABAA, we are now affiliated with the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), which links like-minded national bookseller organizations, representing an impressive array of professional booksellers from 32 different nations.

That’s well and good, but why are we so excited?  A few reasons:

First, the high professional and ethical standards we seek to uphold are admirably supported by the ABAA and shared by its members.  You may read more about the mission of the ABAA HERE and the ABAA Code of Ethics HERE.  As any collector knows, there are few things more disappointing than laboring to find and fund just the right acquisition, only to have the experience marred by an inexperienced, unprofessional, or unscrupulous seller.  ABAA members have – and the organization upholds – the highest standards in the book trade.

Second, with ABAA membership we further enhance our ability to serve our customers.  Our inventory of material by and about Winston Churchill is one of the world’s most extensive, with offerings ranging from some of the rarest material offered – including fine first editions and inscribed copies – to reading copies and works about Churchill’s life and time.  We have the good fortune of an excellent reputation in this specialty and a discerning, global clientele.  However,  both our own collecting interests, and those of our customers extend to authors and eras beyond Churchill.  Our inventory has begun to reflect this collecting diversity and will continue to do so in the future.  Our ABAA membership will enhance our ability to help our customers acquire rare and collectible books beyond the Churchill canon.

To those of you who read our blog, our thanks for sharing our passion for the printed word.  To those who have chosen us to help us build your own collections, we look forward to continuing to help worthy books find your shelves.

Cheers!

Churchill Book Collector is pleased to present a unique full set of British first editions of The Second World War.

What makes this set unique is that each volume is inscribed to the same recipient – Churchill’s first cousin, Captain Oswald Moreton Frewen. Four of the volumes are inscribed in the year of publication. Moreover, the set includes three letters about the books addressed to Oswald from two of Churchill’s private secretaries on both Chartwell and 10 Downing Street stationery. Oswald not only requested the inscriptions, but cheekily made corrections to this signed set of his books and sent emendations to his cousin.

This is our latest offering from the incredible Frewen family collection. To read more about the collection, please see our January 12th blog post. This post provides full images and details about this set.

The Volumes and Inscriptions

Volume I, The Gathering Storm

The British first edition, first printing. The five line inscription in blue ink on the half title recto reads:

Inscribed for

Oswald Frewen

by

Winston S. Churchill

1948

Beside his own name, in pencil in Oswald’s wrote: “King’s Harbour Master | Scapa Flow | March ’39 to Sept ’42” and beside Churchill’s signature “First Lord of the Admiralty | & | Prime Minister of Britain”. Oswald also made pencil annotations to pages 92 & 582, referencing these annotations on the half-title verso.

Volume II, Their Finest Hour

The British first edition, first printing. The five line inscription in blue ink on the second free endpaper recto reads:

Inscribed for

Oswald

by

Winston

1949

Volume III, The Grand Alliance

The British first edition, first printing. The five line inscription in black ink on the second blank endsheet recto reads:

For

Oswald

from

Winston S. Churchill

1950

Laid in at the Volume III half-title, on Chartewell letterhead, is a letter to Oswald from Churchill’s Private Secretary Cecily Gemmell dated “4 August 1950” (two months after publication):

“Dear Captain Frewen, Mr. Churchill would like to thank you very much for your letter of August 1, and to say how glad he was to inscribe your copy of THE GRAND ALLIANCE, which he has now asked me to return to you.”

Volume IV, The Hinge of Fate

The British first edition, first printing. The five line inscription in black ink on the second blank endsheet recto reads:

For

Oswald

from

Winston

Oct 12. 1952

Tipped onto to the first free endpaper is an October 16, 1952 letter on 10 Downing Street stationery from Jock Colville to Oswald:

“You may be interested to know that your two suspected misprints in Volume IV of the Prime Minister’s book have been identified as being big howlers! I have been asked to thank you for spotting them and to tell you that the matter will be investigated and put to right before the next edition.”

Affixed to the front pastedown is the original franked envelope in which the letter was posted to Oswald.

Volume V, Closing the Ring

The British first edition, first printing. The five line inscription in black ink on the second free endpaper recto reads:

To

Oswald

from

Winston

1952

On the second blank endsheet verso Oswald copied his lengthy February 17, 1953 letter to Jock Colville, which begins:

“Dear Colville, Emboldened by your charming letter on the “misprints” I noticed in Winston’s Vol. IV I venture, from the worm’s eye view, to remark on Vol. V, but don’t want to bother Winston himself about them:”

Oswald then enumerates a number of emendations, concluding with a complimentary paragraph about the “stimulus on the fighting personnel of his presence” imparted when Winston made “a personal visit to the Front”.

Colville’s reply to Oswald, dated February 18, 1953 and typed on 10 Downing Street stationery, is tipped onto the half title:

“Many thanks for your letter about Volume V. I shall pass on your observations to those who help Mr. Churchill with the preparation of his book and I have no doubt whatever that they will be as much welcomed as were your last comments. It is a great help to have an unpaid but benevolent and rigorous critic!”

Oswald also made annotations in pencil to pages 68, 484, 518 & 551.

Volume VI, Triumph and Tragedy

The British first edition, first printing. The three-line inscription in black ink on the second blank endsheet recto reads:

Oswald

by

Winston

The Association

Oswald Moreton Frewen (1887-1958) was first cousin to Winston Churchill.  His mother Clara (1851-1935) was the eldest sister of Churchill’s mother, Jennie (1854-1921).  Oswald was the youngest of three children born to Clara Jerome Frewen and Moreton Frewen.

While Churchill was serving as First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War, Oswald served in the Navy and was present at every naval engagement in the North Sea. In 1939, the same year that Winston returned to the Government as First Lord of the Admiralty, Oswald returned to the Navy, becoming King’s Harbour master of Scapa Flow. Oswald held this post from March 1939 to September 1942, also playing a role in the Algiers and Normandy landings and finally retiring from the Navy in 1945 with the rank of Captain.

For a fuller biography of Captain Oswald Frewen, please see our January 23rd blog post.

In his retirement years, Oswald read and annotated cousin Winston’s history of the First World War (as detailed in our January 23rd blog post) and kept in touch with his cousin, closely following the publication of Winston’s history of The Second World War.  In 1949, Oswald and his sister Clare were Christmas guests at Chartwell.  (Gilbert, Volume VIII, p.498)   On 22 August 1950, Churchill wrote to Oswald about trying to complete the fourth volume: “I have had to give up all my holiday,” he complained, and stated “Volume IV is a worse tyrant than Attlee.”  (Gilbert, Volume VIII, p.548)  As this set attests, Oswald chose to congratulate Winston on his completed volume by sending him corrections!

Oswald had a childless marriage late in life. These books remained within the Frewen family until now, passing eventually to his great-nephew, from whom they came to us.

Condition

 “I am one of those horrible readers who deface their books with marginal comments…”

Oswald wrote these words on in the copy of Closing the Ring that is part of this set. Oswald’s comment aptly indicates the condition of this, his remarkable set of The Second World War. This set is exceptional for content rather than condition.

All six original bindings are sound and tight, but scuffed and a bit worn, consistent with the fact that they were diligently read by Churchill’s cousin.  The contents bear modest spotting, mostly confined to page edges.  Top edges are sunned to various shades of pink.  The only remnant of the original dust jackets is the front flap text of the Volume III jacket, affixed to the Volume III front pastedown.  We find no previous ownership marks in the set other than the aforementioned author inscriptions, comments by Oswald, and correspondence from Churchill’s private secretaries.

The set is housed in two stout, dark red cloth slipcases.

Terms & Additional Information

Please inquire with us about availability and terms.

“This is not journalism; it is falsification of History. 

Winston has very obviously made history in two wars,

made mistakes, made successes, made history,

but as a writer of history he is unreliable, partisan & distortionist.”

Churchill’s first cousin, Captain Oswald M. Frewen,

excerpt from annotations to 1916-1918, Part I., page 157

Churchill Book Collector is pleased to present an extraordinary set of The World Crisis, Churchill’s history of the First World War. Each of the five books (the 1916-1918 book was issued in two volumes) is inscribed in the year of publication by Churchill to his Aunt Clara. The books passed to Clara’s son and Churchill’s first cousin Captain Oswald Frewen, a career naval officer who served under Churchill’s leadership as First Lord of the Admiralty during both the First and Second World Wars. Of note to both collectors and scholars, Oswald added extensive, expert, and highly critical annotations to the set, focused on the Battle of Jutland and naval and civilian leadership.

This is our latest offering from the incredible Frewen family collection. To read more about the collection, please see our January 12th blog post.

Of course only one collector or institution will be able to purchase this set, but its singularity warrants sharing with a broader audience. Hence this lengthy post, which includes details about the inscriptions, the annotations, edition, and condition, as well as biographical sketches of Churchill’s Aunt Clara and Cousin Oswald.

The Volumes and Inscriptions

Volume I, 1911-1914

The first edition, second printing. The second printing was actually ordered before publication of the first printing (April 10, 1923) and printed only three days after publication of the first printing (on 13 April, 1923). The four-line inscription in black ink on the second free endpaper recto reads:

 To Aunt Clara

from

Winston.

June 1. 1923

Volume II, 1915

The first edition, first printing, inscribed three days prior to publication (October 30, 1923). The five-line inscription in black ink on the second free endpaper recto reads:

To

Clara

from

Winston

With best love

Oct 27. 1923.

Volume III, 1916-1918, Part I.

The first edition, first printing, inscribed two days prior to publication (March 3, 1927). The five-line inscription in black ink on the second free endpaper recto reads:

 Clara

from

Winston

With best love.

1.3.27

Volume III, 1916-1918, Part II.

The first edition, first printing, not inscribed, as Parts I & II were published together as a single book in two volumes.

Volume IV, The Aftermath

The first edition, first printing, inscribed six days prior to publication (March 7, 1929). The five-line inscription in black ink on the second free endpaper recto reads:

To

Clara

from

Winston

1 Mar 1923

Volume V, The Eastern Front

The first edition, first printing, inscribed early in the month of publication (November 1931, specific day of publication unknown). The five-line inscription in black ink on the half-title recto reads:

To

Clara

from

Winston

Nov 6. 1931

Captain Frewen’s Annotations

“Passed to her son Oswald Frewen, navigating officer of HMS COMUS, Fourth Light Cruiser Squadron, at Jutland, and in 1919 principal assistant to Capt. J. E. T. Harper, the author of the Jutland Report. Harper was chosen as a senior officer, specialised in navigation, who had served directly neither under Beatty nor Jellicoe, so as to preclude bias…. fearing the worst, I have left the book unread on my shelves for 20 years, & have only tackled it after renewal of my 1919-acquired knowledge of the Battle in further study.

                                                OMFrewen

                                                Sept. 3rd ’47”

This excerpt is taken from the incredible 500+ word prelude to Captain Oswald Frewen’s annotations that immediately follows the author’s inscription to his Aunt (and Oswald’s mother) in the first 1916-1918 volume.

Captain Frewen’s extensive annotations appear throughout the two 1916-1918 volumes and run to thousands of words. These annotations are remarkably informed and informative, sharply critical, and compellingly interesting.

Showing throughout all of his annotations is Captain Frewen’s clear and partisan admiration for Jellicoe and dismissive loathing of Beatty. At points, Captain Frewen’s critiques of Winston’s assertions echo the traditional derisiveness of one service branch for another (Frewen a career Naval officer, Churchill’s military career spent in the cavalry and then briefly as an infantry Lieutenant Colonel in the trenches during the First World War). One sample among many: “I am afraid, even from the calm cool armchair, obscured by nothing more than cigar smoke, Winston emerges as a very 8th rate Admiral whatever he may have been as Lieut. of Horse or Col. of Infantry.” Moreover, some of Oswald’s sarcasm and sniping can easily be attributed to the jealousy of a cousin toward the relentlessly eclipsing lodestar that was Winston Churchill.

Nonetheless, Oswald participated in every naval engagement in the North Sea during the First World War, after the war helped the Admiralty prepare the official history of Jutland, and during the Second World War he served as King’s Harbour Master of Scapa Flow. His annotations are, at points, remarkably specific and appear highly informed.

Oswald’s comments are not without some expressed admiration for his Cousin Winston’s gifts – both literary and as a leader. And tempering the sharp criticism is the knowledge that Oswald actively sought – and received – his Cousin’s Winston’s inscriptions in books that Oswald read and annotated until Oswald’s death in 1958. The Frewen collection includes the entire six-volume history, The Second World War, (published between 1948 and 1954) inscribed to Oswald with his suggested edits, as well as volumes of Churchill’s A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (published between 1956 and 1958) inscribed to Oswald.

A final consideration is the fact that, according to the Frewen family, Oswald’s own 1916 diary “is considered to be part of the United Kingdom’s national archives because of his description of the Battle of Jutland,” with a claim upon the volume made by the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth, England.

In sum, it would seem inappropriate to dismiss Captain Frewen’s annotations as simply partisan or jealous. They make this set not just a prized association copy, but also a relevant and unique piece of history.

In recognition of that significance, we have transcribed the entirety of Captain Frewen’s annotations. The verbatim transcription, location description, and context of each comment within the text runs to 22 typed pages. We will provide this transcription upon request to interested parties, including scholars and prospective buyers.

The Associations

We include biographic sketches of both Churchill’s Aunt Clara, to whom the volumes were originally inscribed, and her son, Churchill’s first cousin Oswald, who inherited and annotated the set.

Clarita Jerome Frewen

Clarita “Clara” Jerome Frewen (1851-1935) was the eldest of the three famous Jerome sisters. Middle sister Jeanette “Jennie” Jerome (1854-1921) became Lady Randolph Churchill and mother to Winston Churchill. Youngest sister Leonie Blanche Jerome (1859-1943) became Lady Leslie, wife of Sir John “Jack” Leslie, an Anglo-Irish baronet.

Clara’s father, Leonard Jerome (1817-1891), was a wealthy New York stock speculator, sportsman, and patron of the arts. Clara’s mother, Clarissa Hall, was an orphaned heiress who in the 1860s quitted New York to take her daughters to Paris, where they spent formative years at the court of Napoleon III. Blond, blue-eyed Clara made her debut before the Franco-Prussian war sent the Jerome women to England. There Jennie and Clara caused sensation, wearing matching gowns to society parties, playing after-supper piano duets, and acquiring a reputation for wit and beauty.

Jennie’s marriage in 1873 to the son of the Duke of Marlborough both produced Winston Churchill and introduced sisters Clara and Leonie to aristocratic England, from which their own marriages would ensue.

In 1881, Clara, described as “dreamy” and “fey,” married Moreton Frewen (1853-1924), “a dashing, handsome sportsman from a distinguished Sussex family” and “a younger son with no money” who “tried relentlessly but unsuccessfully to translate his good looks and riding prowess into a fortune.” (Kehoe, Fortune’s Daughters, p. xxi) Moreton was undeniably brave, magnetic, and even visionary, but expensive tastes and wild schemes were his undoing; he would amass a lifetime of financial failures, earning the family nickname “Mortal Ruin.”

It was Uncle Moreton who famously edited Winston Churchill’s first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, with the same diligence and good fortune he applied to his finances. The result was a profusion of spelling and detail errors that incensed his nephew and resulted in later states of the work bearing lengthy errata slips.

Three children were born to Clara and Moreton – Hugh (1883-1967), Clare (1885-1970), and Oswald (1887-1958).

Despite a “fluttery appearance” and penchant for living a lifestyle her means could never support, Clara “could display a mule-like determination” and seemed to genuinely love her husband. Clara found a form of peace at Brede Place, her and Moreton’s home in East Sussex, which they managed, barely, to keep afloat, partly via loans exacted by Moreton from their children.

It is a measure of Clara’s odd social grit and the financial charade of her and Moreton’s life that when bailiffs came to Brede Place in 1908 she paid one of them “ten shillings to answer the door and polish the mirrors.” (Kehoe, Fortune’s Daughters, p.255) In that year, Clara saw her personal possessions auctioned to pay creditors, and it was only the largesse of family and friends that saw some purchased and returned to her.

After a lengthy illness and infirmity, Moreton died in 1924. Clara would remain at Brede Place – despite the terrible financial pressures it imposed on her and her family – until an August 1933 heart attack forced her into a nursing home, where she died on 20 January 1935.

Upon her death, the notice in the Peterborough column of the Daily Telegraph said of Clara: “Mrs. Frewen never took quite the same prominent place in society as her more brilliant sisters. She was, however, a well-known figure in the political and social circles of her time.”

Her nephew, Winston, was “ever considerate to his aunt.” At his mother’s funeral, even in distress Churchill showed kindness to Clara; he “sought her out in the train, made sure that she was given precedence on arrival, and later took the time to show her round the gardens at Blenheim.” In May 1930, Churchill came to tea at Brede Place and “to Clara’s delight, planted a tree in her ‘celebrity’ tree grove.” (Kehoe, Fortune’s Daughters, p.354-5)

The day before she died, Clara wrote to Churchill: “Darling Winston, I want to tell you I did so love your dear letter and know it was your own hand – & know it was your very own right hand that touched that paper. My old heart goes out to you. I have loved you ever since you were a baby and my blessing and peace be upon your darling head.” (Gilbert, Companion Volume V, Part 2, p.1035-6) Churchill wrote to his wife on 23 January 1935: “Poor old Clara died at 82 last Friday. Advised in time by Oswald, I wrote her a letter of affection which reached her on her last day… She was a vy good woman, who had much unhappiness; she was devoted to my Mamma & hence to me.” (Gilbert, Companion Volume V, Part 2, p.1042)

Winston Churchill dutifully inscribed first edition copies of his books to Clara over the course of three decades, from his earliest works into the 1930s, just prior to her death.

Captain Oswald Moreton Frewen

Oswald Moreton Frewen (1887-1958) was first cousin to Winston Churchill (1874-1965). His mother Clara (1851-1935) was the eldest sister of Churchill’s mother, Jennie (1854-1921). Oswald was the youngest of three children born to Clara Jerome Frewen and Moreton Frewen.

Oswald shared many attributes with his famous cousin – among them a vigorous individualism, a deep-seated contrariness, humor and charm, a sense of adventure, courage, and a great facility for words. Where he differed was in either a dislike or discomfort with society, “excusing his reluctance with a kindly contempt for its vanities.”

These similarities and differences play out in the relative trajectories of Oswald and Winston. Winston began as a military officer and war correspondent, which he parlayed into historic careers in politics and as an acclaimed author. Oswald was “a naval officer first and a barrister second, and by inclination an independently minded square peg who moved with great charm and courage from one round hole to the next…” Oswald “employed his own considerable talents with the pen principally by writing a diary” which ran to a remarkable 55 volumes over the course of his life. (Sailor’s Soliloquy, Preface by G.P. Griggs, p.9) In fact, Oswald’s obituary in The Times described him as “the most indefatigable diarist of his generation.”

Oswald himself observed the “streak of pertinacity and persuasiveness in the Jeromes which at crisis accomplishes much” and noted that this streak “became apparent to the world… in… Winston.” (Sailor’s Soliloquy, p.18) Oswald and Churchill may have shared a “disregard for any conventional method of going about things” but where Churchill met disappointment and opposition with willful defiance, Oswald was less compelled to impose his own will and more inclined to “look at the funny side of things and laugh at a world which won’t always laugh with me.” (Sailor’s Soliloquy, p.14)

This pervasive perspective of the outsider is echoed in Oswald’s own comments about his famous cousin: “One of my earliest recollections is of a visit to Banstead manor near Newmarket which my Aunt Jennie had taken. She invited us three children to go and stay with her two, Winston and Jack. My brother Hugh, three years older than I, palled up with the Churchills, and these three elders herded apart and referred to my sister Clare and me, slightly and condescendingly, as ‘the little ones’. In my infant eyes Winston’s dozen years’ excess of life over mine made him seem avuncular rather than cousinly, a kind of early hall-mark which I have never been able to eradicate.” (Sailor’s Soliloquy, p.13)

Oswald attended Eton and then joined the Royal Navy in 1902, his “first and only love in the realm of vocation.” (Sailor’s Soliloquy, Concluding Note by Leigh Holman, p.246) Oswald would be present in every naval engagement in the North Sea during the First World War and, after the war, serve for a period at the Admiralty assisting preparation of the official naval history of the war. Nonetheless, Oswald’s naval career was perhaps limited by “an instinctive mistrust of all those in authority in the Service, Lords Charles Beresford and Jellicoe excepted.” (Sailor’s Soliloquy, Concluding Note by Leigh Holman, p.246)

Oswald left the Navy as a Commander in 1922 to pursue careers variously in the law and journalism. When Oswald decided to apply for the Bar, Winston was asked to provide a character reference. “Oswald had left a section of his reference form blank and, to his delight, Winston added the statement: ‘He is my first cousin & I have been in close touch with him continuously. He was a good officer in the Royal Navy and present at several actions, writes well, & has shewn himself a good & devoted son.’ (Fortune’s Daughters, Elisabeth Kehoe, p.347)

Nonetheless, the law was a bust for Oswald. Consistent with his streak of restless Frewen contrarianism, the law’s “daily grind of doing long and boring pleadings for his Master… had no charms for him.” His close friend Leigh Holman later wrote of Oswald: “His four years at the Bar were lean indeed for him, but a glorious light relief to the rest of us in the Chambers who were trying to work but always willing to be entertained.” (Sailor’s Soliloquy, Concluding Note by Leigh Holman, p.246)

Journalism perhaps suited Oswald’s adventurous side and his interest in “the failings and shortcomings of all those in authority, particularly if they were public concerns.” (Sailor’s Soliloquy, Concluding Note by Leigh Holman, p.245) Perhaps most notably, Oswald was able to combine his sense of adventure, his love of motorbikes, and his close bond with his turbulently flamboyant sister Clare, during a 1924 trip across Europe to Russia, with Clare in his sidecar. Nonetheless, adventure did not translate to a reliable career. Oswald “managed to generate some income through his writing, but it was insufficient to run the household.” (Fortune’s Daughters, Elisabeth Kehoe, p.352)

Oswald would notably return to active service in 1939. The same year that Winston returned to the Government as First Lord of the Admiralty, Oswald returned to the Navy as King’s Harbour Master of Scapa flow, a post he held from March 1939 to September 1942, also playing a role in the Algiers and Normandy landings and finally retiring from the Navy in 1945 with the rank of Captain.

That same year, Oswald married Lena Marson Spilman (1902-1988). They would spend the rest of Oswald’s life at his beloved home, “The Sheephouse” in Brede, East Sussex, an old sheep barn on 100 acres that he purchased in 1928 and converted into an Elizabethan half-timbered cottage. (It was in this house as Oswald’s guest that Laurence Olivier proposed to Vivian Leigh, who, along with her previous husband, was a friend of Oswald.) Oswald died in 1958.

The Edition

 The World Crisis is Churchill’s history of the First World War, originally published in six volumes between 1923 and 1931.

The first four volumes comprise the history of the war years 1911-1918 and were published between 1923 and 1927. Two supplemental volumes followed in 1929 and 1931. These were The Aftermath, covering the years 1918-1928, and The Eastern Front, which Churchill initially proposed as “separate from but supplementary to our five volume history”, intended to describe in greater detail “the course of events in the Eastern theatre” (Cohen, Vol. I, p.234).

Of The World Crisis, Frederick Woods wrote, “The volumes contain some of Churchill’s finest writing, weaving the many threads together with majestic ease, describing the massive battles in terms which fitly combine relish of the literary challenge with an awareness of the sombre tragedy of the events.” Churchill was in a special position to write this history, having served both in the Cabinet and on the Front.

Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911 until 1915, but after the failure in the Dardanelles and the slaughter at Gallipoli, he was scapegoated by his peers, betrayed by his Prime Minister, and hounded by the Conservatives. Churchill would go from the Cabinet to the Front, serving as a lieutenant colonel leading a battalion in the trenches.

By the war’s end, Churchill was exonerated by the Dardanelles Commission and rejoined the Government, but the stigma of the Dardanelles would linger. Churchill wrote his history of the First World War in part to clear his name and reputation, but the six volume masterwork he produced far exceeds this purpose.

The U.S. is the true first edition, as U.S. publication of Volume I (6 April 1923) preceded the British (10 April 1923). Nonetheless, the British first edition is prized. The British first edition was more uniform in appearance, with identical dark blue cloth bindings. Many consider the British edition aesthetically superior to the U.S., with its larger volumes and shoulder notes summarizing the subject of each page. There were multiple printings of each volume of the British first edition, with various small differences to bindings, content, and dust jackets.

Condition

 “I am one of those horrible readers who deface their books with marginal comments…”

Oswald wrote these words on February 17, 1953, on the first free endpaper of his copy of Winston’s fifth Volume of The Second World War. Oswald addressed his comments to Jock Colville, Churchill’s Private Secretary, to whom he was sending the book both with suggested edits and in order to receive it back with his cousin Winston’s signature. Winston obliged.

This comment from Oswald aptly indicates the condition of this remarkable set of The World Crisis he inherited from his mother, and subsequently read and heavily annotated.

This set is in sound, original, unrestored condition, with the original bindings all firm and intact, but is certainly well short of fine and is obviously to be prized far more for provenance and content than for condition.

Five of the six volumes are first edition, first printing (most having been inscribed by the author to his Aunt Clara prior to publication. Volume I, the 1911-1914 volume, is first edition, second printing. As noted above, the second printing of Volume I was actually ordered before publication of the first printing (April 10, 1923) and printed only three days after publication of the first printing (on 13 April, 1923).

The blue cloth bindings are all square and tight, but show some of the scuffing endemic to the smooth navy cloth and slight wear to extremities. Additionally, we note the following: very slight outward warping to the 1915 volume boards; a pull and some minor fraying at the head of the 1915 volume spine; minor blistering of The Aftermath cloth (to which this particular volume was prone) on the upper front cover and lower right of the spine; some minor discoloration spots to The Eastern Front front cover and a wrinkle (binding error rather than blistering) in the upper rear cover cloth.

The contents of all six volumes show the spotting to which this edition proved vulnerable. Spotting is substantially confined to the page edges and first and final leaves, the heaviest instance within the set observed on the inscribed page of the 1915 volume. We note no previous ownership marks beyond the author’s inscriptions and Captain Frewen’s annotations.

The set is housed in a navy cloth slipcase with gilt print and decoration on the right side.

Bibliographic reference: Cohen A69.2(I).d, A69.2(II).a, A69.2(III-1).a, A69.2(III-2).a, A69.2(IV).a, A69.2(V).a.; Woods/ICS A31(ab), Langworth p.105

Terms and Additional Information

Please inquire with us about availability and terms, or for a full transcription and additional information about the remarkable annotations.

Cheers!

Churchill Book Collector