Book Collector's Guide
Churchill's first book: True-life military adventures drawn from newspaper despatches filed by the 22-year-old correspondent while serving on India's Afghanistan-bordering Northwest Frontier under Major-General Sir Bindon Blood. Wrenching to read how little has changed in this region since Churchill's time. The First Edition is easily distinguished by its apple green cloth binding but MALAKAND is prized by collectors in almost any edition.
THE RIVER WAR [1899] (Cohen A2) (Woods A2)
More blood and guts reportage by young Winston, the war correspondent, here in his second book delivering a brilliant history of British involvement in the Sudan and an account of the fierce campaign for its reconquest that Churchill himself participated in. Originally published in two large, lavish and, today, extremely rare volumes. All subsequent editions have been significantly abridged.
SAVROLA [1900] (Cohen A3) (Woods A3)
The first and only Churchill novel, a statement of personal and political philosophy delivered as a fictional adventure yarn. U.S. publication preceded the British issue, rendering the American first edition the true first.
The first of two Boer War volumes derived from young Winston's newspaper despatches as a war correspondent, featuring a thrilling account of his escape from the Boers, an escape that helped launch his political career. The First English edition was published elaborately in fawn colored cloth stamped with a striking cover illustration of an armored train (the one that helped transport Churchill to freedom). The American edition is an unadorned, though still handsome, red cloth binding with gilt lettering.
The culmination of Churchill's Boer War narrative that began with LONDON TO LADYSMITH, including the triumphant liberation of his former-POW camp in Pretoria.
The holy grail of Churchill books: a 102-page softcover collection of six eloquent Parliamentary speeches delivered by the then-29-year-old MP opposing plans for expanding England's peacetime Army. Crudely produced in cheap red printed wraps, the surviving handful of copies (as few as a dozen or less) today constitute the stuff of collectors' dreams.
Churchill's impassioned two-volume biography written in defense of his maligned father's posthumous reputation. Subsequently issued in an unabridged one-volume edition. A bulwark of any Churchill collection.
FOR FREE TRADE [1906] (Cohen A18) (Woods A9)
Identical in format and binding to MR. BRODRICK'S ARMY and just as precious, comprising nine speeches delivered in Parliament on the title subject. As with BRODRICK, FOR FREE TRADE was crudely produced, bound in cheap red printed wraps, and, again, the surviving handful of copies (as few as 12 accounted for) today constitute the stuff of collectors' dreams.
Big game hunting on the Dark Continent with young Churchill as guide. The First English edition is particularly coveted for its handsome cover woodcut of the author posed beside a trophy rhinoceros. The more plainly bound American edition has no woodcut on its red buckram cover.
Churchill's first widely-published hardcover collection of political speeches, expressing "radical" views that were quite advanced for his time, prefiguring the modern welfare state that Churchill and David Lloyd George would set in motion. Though the burgundy clothbound English edition was handsomely produced, with Churchill's signature in gilt across the front board, the similarly bound American edition, without the gilt signature, is rarer. Increasingly scarce in either edition.
Six speeches from the 1911 general election rebuking the Tories for their rejection of "The People's Budget." Originally published in simultaneous hard and softcover editions, the book is rarely encountered today in either format. In fact, this is probably the third rarest Churchill book after MR. BRODRICK'S ARMY and FOR FREE TRADE. It was reprinted twice in the 1970s, though even these reprints are scarce today.
THE WORLD CRISIS [1923-1931] (Cohen A69) (Woods A31)
Churchill's highly subjective history of the First World War; five volumes (in six books) written over eight years. Initial volumes were first published in the U.S. (by a matter of days), making the American edition the true first edition. Volume 1 (1911-1914) and Volume 2 (1915) were published in 1923. Volume 3 (1916-1918 ) was published in two parts in 1927 (hence the five/in six volumes ultimate format. Volume 4 (THE AFTERMATH 1918-1928) was published in 1929; and Volume 5 (THE UNKNOWN WAR/EASTERN FRONT) in 1931. A one-volume abridgement by the author was soon issued. Most subsequent re-issues have been incomplete, abridged or condensed versions of the original text.
MY EARLY LIFE [1930] (Cohen A91) (Woods A37)
Arguably, Winston Churchill's most entertaining book, a memoir of youth and wayward school boyhood - in fact, the only volume of personal memoirs that Churchill ever wrote. Published in the U.S. under the title, A ROVING COMMISSION. The work is available today in a variety of endlessly re-issued editions. True first editions, however, remain quite rare.
INDIA [1931] (Cohen A92) (Woods A38)
This brief compilation of speeches about Gandhi and "Our Duty in India" was simultaneously published in especially handsome hardcover and softcover editions, both much prized today by collectors.
Terrific anthology of Churchill essays and magazine articles published during the 1920's and early-1930's on a wide variety of subjects. Issued in the U.S. under the title, AMID THESE STORMS.
Majestic biography of John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough; soldier, statesmen, hard-headed Churchillian ancestor. Initially published in England as a lush four-volume set and then as a somewhat less deluxe six-volume set in the U.S. Subsequently issued in a two-volume edition that is not an abridgment, and a single volume edition that is.
Penetrating profiles of twenty-one political and literary luminaries. An utter delight to read; beautifully written, brutally opinionated (Hitler comes off just a bit better than Shaw). The ensuing "Revised" edition (and most future reprints) added four new profiles: Lord Fisher, Charles Stewart Parnell, Lord Baden-Powell and President Roosevelt.
This volume of forty-one pre-war speeches (1936-1938, collected and edited by son Randolph) spotlights Churchill's initial alarms against the Nazis. Published in the U.S. under the title, WHILE ENGLAND SLEPT. Only reprinted once since.
STEP BY STEP [1939] (Cohen A111) (Woods A45)
A chilling anthology of Churchill's prescient newspaper pieces for the Evening Standard and Daily Telegraph about the rising Nazi threat, commencing in 1936 with Hitler's reoccupation of the Rhineland, through the final months before the declaration of war in 1939.
THE WAR SPEECHES [1941-1946] (Cohen A142-A227) (Woods A66-A114)
Seven individual compilation volumes were published yearly, beginning in 1941, under the following titles: INTO BATTLE (1938-1940 speeches) [published in the U.S. under the title BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS], THE UNRELENTING STRUGGLE (1940-1941 speeches), THE END OF THE BEGINNING (1942 speeches), ONWARDS TO VICTORY (1943 speeches), THE DAWN OF LIBERATION (1944 speeches), VICTORY (1945 speeches), and SECRET SESSION SPEECHES (Various Dates). Unlike the English editions, which were all published by one publisher, Cassell, the American series was initiated by G.P. Putnam with BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS, then carried on by Little, Brown up till the final volume, SECRET SESSION SPEECHES, which was published by Simon and Schuster.
The best-selling six-volume history that helped gain Winston Churchill a Nobel Prize for literature. Published first in the U.S., the ensuing English edition contained numerous corrections and even a few additional maps. It is therefore considered more definitive, though today the American edition may be rarer. The set was simultaneously published by the Book-of-the-Month-Club, whose reprints were of a quality comparable to the true first editions and are thus easily confused with them.
THE POST-WAR SPEECHES [1948-1953] (Cohen A241-A273) (Woods A124-A142)
Five postwar speech compilation volumes were published, beginning with THE SINEWS OF PEACE in 1948 (late-1945-1946 speeches, including the legendary Fulton, Missouri "Iron Curtain" speech); EUROPE UNITE in 1950 (1947-1948); IN THE BALANCE in 1951 (1949-1950); STEMMING THE TIDE in 1953 (1951-1952); and THE UNWRITTEN ALLIANCE in 1961, the final collection of Churchill speeches, covering the years 1953-1959. This book appeared in England only, and is the rarest of the postwar speech volumes.
Churchill's marvelous essay celebrating his favorite hobby first appeared in the Strand magazine, running over two issues (December 1921 and January 1922). It then was included in Churchill’s THOUGHTS AND ADVENTURES, before being published on its own as this delightful little book, which has since been endlessly re-issued in a variety of English and American editions.
Sweeping four-volume history of England, her colonies, and the language that Churchill so venerated and ennobled in his own writings. The original English edition was handsomely printed, the American edition was less so. Subsequent re-issues and abridgements abound.
A one-volume abridgement of Churchill's first four books (MALAKAND, THE RIVER WAR, LONDON TO LADYSMITH and IAN HAMILTON'S MARCH), which were all derived from his newspaper despatches covering various colonial wars. Although this work appeared in Churchill's lifetime he had nothing to do with its preparation, nor did it contain new material, though it is, in and of itself, a new text.
Churchill the war correspondent: Texts of his original newspaper despatches from colonial wars in India, the Sudan and South Africa, 1897-1900.
Little known, except to collectors, this is a compendium of Churchill’s writings and speeches heavily abridged by Jack Fishman, the journalist who published the first biography of Churchill's wife, MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, in 1963.
Six major posthumous works have reprinted Churchill's writings and speeches in significant new formats. They are: THE COLLECTED WORKS; THE MAJOR WORKS OF SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL; WINSTON S. CHURCHILL: HIS COMPLETE SPEECHES 1897-1963; THE COLLECTED ESSAYS OF SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL; and THE GREAT REPUBLIC; NEVER GIVE IN!: The Best Of Winston Churchill's Speeches.
Two contemporary publications of the International Churchill Society that preserve between covers for the first time some excellent Churchill obscurities.
