Amid These Storms

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932. First edition. Hardcover. This is a strikingly clean, jacketed example of the U.S. first edition, only printing. Churchill's collection of 23 engaging essays on an incredibly wide variety of subjects has been called "The broadest range of Churchill's thought between hard covers" and reflects the two qualities that so characterize Churchill's life - a remarkable breadth of both mind and life experience. The content ranges from personal and political musings to prescient speculation on the future. The original front flap blurb encapsulates – as far as is possible – the wide range of the chapters within: “These true stories concern such things as the tides that make a politician change his mind; the domination of chance in human lives; the cartoonists who mocked Churchill; the chances and events that occurred while he was in the trenches; phases of the war seen from intimate participation with the high commands; flying experiences in 1912; the Irish; the future; and contemporary change." In a 31 May 1932 letter to his publisher about the book, Churchill characterized his book thus: "...although there is no one single theme, it has some of the best things in it I have ever written."

Published in the Britain as Thoughts and Adventures, this is one of the few Churchill first editions for which the U.S. edition bears a different title than the British. The U.S. first edition text was photo-reproduced from the British first edition, but everything else about the edition differs markedly from its British counterpart. The bright red-orange coarse cloth binding of Amid These Storms matches the style of the 1930 U.S. first edition of A Roving Commission but the dust jacket for Amid These Storms is strikingly unique. It bears a full length photo of Churchill in Flanders in 1916, wearing his French Poilu's helmet. This image appears on both the spine and front face. The orange color on the dust jacket and the red-orange binding proved exceptionally prone to sunning. Further, both the coarse cloth binding and the white fields of the dust jacket proved quite susceptible to soiling. Jacketed copies are scarce and truly bright copies are a rarity; most copies look like they spent time in the trenches with Churchill.

Here is a remarkably clean, fine copy in a very good dust jacket. The red-orange cloth binding is not only immaculate and vividly bright, but also square and tight with sharp corners. There is no appreciable wear or soiling. Searching for flaws, we note only a mild hint of toning to the bottom edge of the spine. The contents are equally impressive, strikingly clean and bright with no spotting and no previous ownership marks. Even the untrimmed fore edges are virtually pristine, with just a hint of trivial dust soiling to the top edge. The unclipped dust jacket retains the original $3.50 front flap price. There is light wear to extremities, fractional loss to the corners, and modest spine toning. Nonetheless, the white portions of the jacket are far cleaner than we usually see and shelf presentation is quite respectable. The dust jacket is protected with a removable, clear, archival cover.

Reference: Cohen A95.2, Woods/ICS A39(ba), Langworth p.158.