A Roving Commission, a magnificent, jacketed copy of the first edition, first printing, inscribed and dated by Churchill in September 1931

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1930. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. This is a rare and compelling convergence of edition, condition, popularity, and provenance. This U.S. first edition, first printing of Winston S. Churchill’s autobiography of his early life – perhaps foremost among his most enduringly popular works – is an exceptionally well-preserved copy in a likewise exceptionally well-preserved first issue dust jacket. Condition alone would render this copy magnificent, but this copy is also inscribed and dated by the author within a year of publication. The inscription, inked in three lines on the front free endpaper recto, reads: “Inscribed by | Winston S. Churchill | Sept. 1931”.

This first edition, first printing is distinguished thus by the first issue dust jacket and the Scribner’s “A” on the title page verso. This first printing was published in late October 1930, less than a year before it was inscribed.

The U.S. first edition was aesthetically striking, bound in a bright red-orange cloth with vertical and horizontal intersecting blind rules of varying thickness on the front cover and spine, these framing the gilt spine and front cover print. The contents feature untrimmed fore edges. The dust jacket front face and spine feature a bright red-orange center panel, complementing the binding, capped by white ends on the spine and by navy blue panels on the front face. The net aesthetic effect is commandingly bold and arresting – not unsuited to the author and content. Unfortunately, the red-orange cloth binding proved highly susceptible to fading and soiling and the thin, fragile dust jacket proved highly vulnerable to wear and severe fading, particularly on the jacket spine. Jacketed copies of the U.S. first edition are scarce and respectable unjacketed copies are unusual.

This copy truly impresses. Conservatively, we grade both the volume and dust jacket as near fine. It would be exceptional thus for condition alone. Inscribed and dated, it is a prize.

Even without hyperbolizing, we will nonetheless swiftly run short of superlatives. The red-orange cloth binding is square, clean, bright, and tight, with no appreciable color shift between the covers and spine. We note only incidental signs of handling in the form of a barely discernible hint of soiling to the spine and very lightly bruised lower corners. The contents are simply the brightest and cleanest we have ever seen, improbably bright in fact. Even the page edges – including the top edge and untrimmed fore edges – are strikingly bright and clean. Searching for flaws we note only a little original binding glue residue to the bottom edge of the text block adjacent to the spine, two small marks to the front pastedown (as if from something once laid in) and a light, faint finger smudge to the bottom edge of the front free endpaper – notionally, though certainly not definitively, dating from when the page was inscribed by the author.

The dust jacket is simply the best-preserved example we have ever seen – entirely complete with no loss or tears, and, like the contents strikingly, improbably, magnificently bright. Soiling is incidental. If not for a negligible wear to extremities and some scuffs to the beautifully bight orange spine panel, one might not believe this is an original first issue jacket. Marvelously, it most certainly is. The jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover.

The author’s inscription remains distinct, showing only mild spread and fade consonant with the ink and age. It seems clear that Churchill’s pen was imperfect on the day, evidenced by a little bleed of the ink in the “ed” of “Inscribed” and a stray mark at the top of the “W” in “Winston”.

This copy is housed in a dark red cloth Solander case with gilt-printed, black leather spine label.

Reference: Cohen A91.2.a, Woods/ICS A37(b.1), Langworth p. 134.