The Unrelenting Struggle

Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1942. Canadian first edition. Hardcover. This is a quite presentable copy of the Canadian first edition of Churchill's second war speeches volume. The Unrelenting Struggle contains 72 of Churchill's speeches, broadcasts, and messages to Parliament from November 1940 to the end of 1941, terminating with Churchill’s famous speeches to the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament. Churchill's words during this time resounded during some of the darkest and most uncertain days of the war.

This first Canadian edition is very good in a very good dust jacket. The red cloth binding is clean, square, bright, and tight, with sharp corners, wrinkling to the spine ends, and a touch of toning confined to the spine heel corresponding to small dust jacket losses. The contents are respectably clean with no previous ownership marks and no spotting, mild age-toning, and light spotting to the text block edges. The dust jacket’s red spine panels are only mildly toned, retaining bright color. There are shallow chip losses to the spine ends, flap fold corners, and upper rear face, as well as modest overall scuffing and soiling. The dust jacket is protected beneath a removable, clear, archival cover.

Between 1941 and 1946, Churchill's war speeches were published in seven individual volumes in British, U.S. editions, and Canadian editions. The Canadian first editions are scarcer than either their British or U.S. first edition counterparts, particularly in collector-worthy condition in first printing dust jackets.

Few books are as emblematic of Churchill’s literary and leadership gifts as his war speeches volumes. 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 A172.3, Woods/ICS A89(c), Langworth p.215.