The World Crisis (first abridged and revised edition)

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1931. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. This is the first abridged and revised edition of Churchill's monumental history of the First World War in the original first printing dust jacket - one of the most striking and rare dust jackets in the Churchill canon. This magnificent copy is quite likely the finest surviving example.

This important edition covering the war years 1911-1918 is not just an abridgement; it incorporates revisions by Churchill with new material, including a whole new chapter on the Battle of the Marne, as well as a new introduction. Moreover, this U.S. edition preceded the British, making it the true first edition. The front face of the yellow dust jacket features a full-length, half-tone photograph of Churchill striding, in top hat with walking stick in hand. The rear cover features a smaller head and shoulders image of Churchill in the uniform of the South African Light Horse (set amid an advertisement for A Roving Commission). Writing in 1997, Churchill expert Richard Langworth said of this dust jacket "I know of only two or three of these in existence." We know of a few more, but certainly only a small number survive and likely no one else owns one like this.

This copy is extraordinary, both the jacket and volume in better than near fine condition. The jacket is complete, with no loss whatsoever and the original “$5.00” price intact on the upper front flap. Moreover, the jacket is beautifully bright, the yellow hue entirely unfaded. Minor wrinkling to extremities, particularly at the spine head and adjacent portions of the upper faces, and a hint of soiling, mostly to the rear face, are the only appreciable flaws. The dust jacket is fitted with a clear, removable, archival cover. The volume beneath is worthy of its jacket, the navy cloth binding beautifully clean, square, bright, and tight with vivid spine gilt, sharp corners. We find only a trivial hint of shelf wear at the spine heel. The contents are equally bright. There is no spotting and the profusion of maps, charts, etc. are all intact. A hint of age-toning is discernible only to the otherwise clean text block edges. We would grade this copy as truly “fine” if not for previous ownership marks – all three contemporary and the same, consisting of “Mrs. William Read” and a Los Angeles address on the front pastedown, “Helen L. Read” and the date “Sept 1931” on the half-title, and “Helen L. Read” again on the dedication page. A tiny sticker reading “From the Books of J. W. Robinson Co. Seventh & Grand Los Angeles” is affixed to the upper rear pastedown; this was the flagship location of the eponymous department store, built in 1914.

A quarter of a century before the Second World War endowed him with lasting fame, Winston Churchill played a uniquely critical, controversial, and varied role in the “War to end all wars”. Churchill's history, The World Crisis, was originally published in six volumes between 1923 and 1931. This first abridged and revised edition, incorporating significant new material, was published in February 1931 – actually preceding the November 1931 publication of the sixth and final volume of the unabridged edition.

Churchill was in a special position to write this history of a war which nearly cost him both his political and corporeal lives. Churchill served as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911 until 1915, but after the Dardanelles disaster and slaughter at Gallipoli, he was scapegoated and forced to resign. He ultimately went from the cabinet to the Front, spending his political exile as a lieutenant colonel leading a battalion in the trenches. Before war's end, Churchill was exonerated and rejoined the Government, foreshadowing the political isolation and restoration he would experience nearly two decades later leading up to the Second World War. Despite his political recovery, the Dardanelles stigma lingered, giving Churchill more than just literary and financial compulsion to write his history.

Reference: Cohen A69.5.a, Woods/ICS A31(ba.1), Langworth p.115.