Winston Churchill in Peace and War

London: George Newnes, Limited, 1916. Second Edition. Hardcover. This is the 1916 edition of the first biography of Churchill in the quite scarce dust jacket. In 1905, MacCallum Scott wrote the first biography of Churchill. Churchill was only thirty-one and his future greatness was still both distant and uncertain. Nonetheless, the author predicted that Churchill would achieve the premiership. In 1916, during the First World War and soon after Churchill was forced from the Cabinet over the Dardanelles, the author published an updated version. At a time when Churchill's scapegoating was still fresh and his future uncertain, the author asserted that Churchill's plan was strategically sound, the failure being military and political. Interestingly, the penultimate chapter is entitled “The Downfall”.

Here is this 1916 edition in the quite rare and striking original dust jacket, featuring a front face portrait of Churchill in his Admiralty uniform. The volume itself is near fine. The red cloth binding remains vividly bright, with only hints of sunning at the spine ends and edges corresponding to minor dust jacket losses, and with a small stain on the front cover corresponding to a dust jacket stain. The contents are bright and crisp with no previous ownership marks. Light spotting is confined to the page edges. The dust jacket is highly complete, with minor loss to a maximum .25 inch depth at the spine head and upper edge of the front face. The spine is modestly toned, there is some staining to the front face, and there are closed tears at the lower font hinge and lower front corner. The dust jacket is protected in a removable, archival quality clear cover.

Reference: Zoller A6