The Unrelenting Struggle

London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1942. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. This is the British first edition, first printing, first state of the second volume of Churchill's war speeches, containing 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 edition, first printing is in very good condition in a good dust jacket. First state is confirmed by irregular spacing of the pagination at p.281. The blue cloth binding is square, tight, and unfaded, with bright spine gilt. Trivial shelf wear is confined to extremities. The contents show no previous ownership marks and spotting is substantially confined to the first and final leaves and page edges. The first printing dust jacket is unclipped, the original lower front flap price intact, and unfaded, the orange hue bright on both the front face and spine. There is overall soiling and scuffing and shallow loss to the spine head, upper front face, and flap fold extremities. A previous owner applied hued patches to the verso of the jacket which appear to be from a donor dust jacket. The dust jacket is protected beneath a removable, clear, archival cover.

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.”

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 “War Economy Standard” 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.

Reference: Cohen A172.1.a, Woods/ICS A89(a.1), Langworth p.213.