The War Speeches, a full set of seven British first editions - Into Battle, The Unrelenting Struggle, The End of the Beginning, Onwards to Victory, The Dawn of Liberation, Victory, and Secret Session Speeches

London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1941. First edition, first printings. Hardcover. Here is a full jacketed set of British first edition, first printings of Churchill's seven war speeches volumes. Few books are as emblematic of Churchill’s literary and leadership gifts as his war speeches volumes. Between 1941 and 1946, Churchill's war speeches were published in seven individual volumes. The British first editions are visually striking, but were printed on cheap wartime paper, bound in coarse cloth, and wrapped in bright, fragile dust jackets. They proved highly susceptible to spotting, soiling, and fading, so the passage of time has been hard on most surviving first editions. Assembling jacketed first printing sets has been challenging.

This full first edition, first printing set features very good volumes in good plus or better dust jackets. The blue cloth bindings remain square, tight, and respectably clean, with only a few trivial blemishes, minor shelf wear to extremities, a few corner bumps, and a little loss of the first volume's author and publisher gilt print. The contents of all seven volumes are respectably bright, though with customary spotting, substantially confined to prelims and page edges. Most, if not all, of this set has spent life together; the same previous owner’s bookplate, including their inked name and date contemporary to publication, is affixed to the front pastedowns of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes. The same previous owner’s name and a contemporary date of “1946” is inked on the front pastedown of the seventh volume. Into Battle is not only first printing, but first state, confirmed by the absence of pagination at pages 78 and 294, and is bound in the smoother, darker blue cloth we correlate to the first state. The Unrelenting Struggle is likewise first state, with irregular pagination at p.281, as is Victory, confirmed by incorrect pagination at p.177. The first printing dust jackets retain bright hues, though with various wear and defects. The fourth, fifth, and sixth volume dust jackets have neatly price-clipped lower front flaps, the other four retaining the original publisher prices. All seven jackets show various amounts of wear to extremities, and modest overall scuffing. We note minor chip losses to the spine ends and the upper front face of the second volume, as well as a shallow strip loss to the lower left front cover of the fifth volume. The versos of the spine ends of the third, fourth, and fifth volume dust jackets have been carefully backed with colored patches, apparently from donor dust jackets, to fill in the minor losses. The white Secret Session Speeches dust jacket shows some typical spotting. All seven dust jackets are protected beneath clear, removable, archival covers.

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, combative cold warrior, Nobel Prize winner, painter. But Churchill's preeminence as a historical figure owes most to his indispensable leadership during the Second World War, when his soaring and defiant oratory sustained his countrymen and inspired the free world. Of Churchill, Edward R. Murrow said: "He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle." When Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953, it was partly “…for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.”

Reference: Cohen A142.1.a, A172.1.a, A183.1.a, A194.1.a, A214.1.a, A223.1.a, A227.2.a; Woods/ICS A66(a.1), A89(a.1), A94(a.1), A101(a.1), A107(a.1), A112(ab), A114(b); Langworth pages 204, 213, 218, 223, 228, 234, 250.