Search Results: Authors starting with K from Churchill Book Collector

Ottawa, Canada: Yousuf Karsh, 1943. Photograph. This is a striking Second World War photographic portrait of one of the of the most enduring leaders of the first half of the twentieth century, captured by one of the most famous portrait photographers of the second half of the twentieth century, signed by both Jan Smuts and Yousuf Karsh. This exceptional, large gelatin silver print of Karsh’s 1943 portrait of Smuts is printed on a 12 x 15.5 inches (30.5 x 39.4 cm) sheet of matte photo paper backed with heavy card, the image measuring 10.5 x 13.5 inches (26.7 x 34.3 cm). Smuts signed in black across the back of his left hand “J. Smuts | F.M.” (Field Marshal). Karsh signed in white at the lower left “© Y Karsh | Ottawa.” Condition is very good, eminently frameable, with only trivial wear to the edges of the white margins and a few insignificant blemishes to the image. A similar portrait of Smuts in the National Portrait Gallery, presumably taken during the same sitting, is attributed to 1943,… Read More

Hyde Park Gate, London, 1948. Letter. This 4 August July 1948 holograph letter is from “indefatigable Churchill literary assistant” Denis Kelly to Desmond Flower of Cassell regarding uncorrected errors in the soon-to be published British first edition of the first volume of The Second World War, The Gathering Storm (published 4 October 1948). The holograph letter is inked entirely in Kelly’s hand on the recto of a sheet of Hyde Park Gate stationery. Dated by Kelly “11/8/48” (11 August 1948), it reads: “Dear Flower, I’ve found a number of rather hefty misprints in The Gathering Storm, & will send you a list…” Kelly acknowledges “…that it is too late to do anything about it now…” but suggests a review protocol for Cassell to follow “…before you print a second edition…” Tellingly, Kelly concludes “I haven’t broken the news to W.S.C. yet, but I hope there isn't a second gathering storm about to break!” Pencil annotation at the upper left reads: “Mr. B [indecipherable} saw Mr.… Read More

London: Macmillan and Co., 1894. First edition. Hardcover. John Lockwood Kipling. This is a compelling set of British first editions of perhaps Kipling’s most famous works – the first and second Jungle Books. These copies were previously owned by Churchill’s friends and publishers, Frank and Nelson Doubleday, and apparently used by Nelson to prepare Doubleday’s 1946 editions. Ironically, Kipling’s quintessential tales of India were conceived in Vermont, where Kipling and his father, John Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911) “worked together in the closest harmony… as the two sat smoking their pipes and plotting out fresh stories together.” (Allen, Kipling Sahib, p.328) Here Mowgli was born, the infant found by Father Wolf, saved from Shere Khan, and tutored in the Laws of the Jungle by Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear. “The pen took charge, and I watched it begin to write stories about Mowgli and the animals, which later grew into the Jungle Books.” Kipling had left India for the last… Read More

London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1906. First edition. Hardcover. Harold R. Millar. This is a magnificent copy of the British first edition, second printing in the exceptionally scarce dust jacket. The second printing was issued the same month as the first printing and is nearly identical. The dust jacket differs from that of the first printing only in adding Puck of Pook's Hill to the list of Kipling titles on the rear panel. The volume differs only in the copyright page notation of the second printing. Puck of Pooks Hill is Kiplings abidingly English collection of ten stories and sixteen poems, informed by English history and animated by English mythology, for a youthful audience, this British first edition published with twenty illustrations by Harold R. Millar. This is the first publication of the sixteen poems. Preceding the British and American first editions, the stories had appeared in Strand Magazine, as well as in Ladies Home Journal and McClures Magazine in America. Several minor changes were… Read More

Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., Ltd., 1935. First edition. Hardcover. This first and limited edition collects two letters written by Kipling to his American publishers, Frank Nelson Doubleday and his son Nelson Doubleday. The first letter was written to Nelson, and used as the Foreword to A Kipling Pageant in 1935. The second letter was written to Frank, and used as the Introduction to the Outward Bound Edition of Kipling's works, published by Scribner’s in 1897, and arranged through the efforts of Frank Doubleday. The edition was limited to 950 copies, each bound in marbled paper-covered boards with gilt-stamped, black cloth spine, the volume housed in a notched, red cardboard slipcase. This near-fine, unread copy retains the original slipcase, which is damaged and worn. The binding is square and tight with sharp corners and bright spine gilt. Neither the boards nor cloth spine show any appreciable wear. The signatures remain uncut, so the copy is demonstrably unread. There are… Read More