Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller - Old and Rare Books

Marlborough: His Life and Times [Complete in 4 Vols.]

Churchill, Winston S.

London: George G. Harrap, 1933 - 1938. New Edition Revised Vol. I, Vol. II 2nd Impression o f 1st edition, others first editions. Hardcover. Small Quarto. Original burgundy cloth with gilt-stamped Churchill family crest on cover and gilt lettering on spines, in original dust jackets. Tan djs in vols. I - III, dj in vol. IV in green. Beveled edges. Top edges gilt. Frontispiece in each volume. Vol. I: 611 [1]pp. Stated: "Reprinted October 1933" Vol. II: 650 [1]pp. Stated 2nd Impression, 1934, Errata slip bound in on page 435. Vol. III: 607 [1]pp. Errata slip bound in at page 18. First edition, 1936. Vol. IV: 670 [1]pp. First edition, 1938. Dustjackets with price "25/- NET" printed to inside flaps. Each volume is illustrated with b/w photographic reproductions of various art work, maps, plans and documents (some folding). Many plates in photogravure. Includes three partly colored & b/w fold-out maps.

Captivating biography of the 1st Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill (1650 - 1722), by Winston Churchill. The Duke was an English soldier and statesman, whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs through the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The author was a descendant of the Duke. Churchill had conceived the idea of writing the work in 1929, when the conservative defeat in the general election meant that he was no longer a government minister. He seriously took on the task of writing in 1932 after pressure from his publishers. In the preface in Vol. I, Churchill writes: "It is my hope to recall this great shade from the past, and not only invest him with his panalopy, but make him living and intimate to modern eyes. I hope to show that he was not only the foremost of English soldiers, but in the first rank among the statesmen of our history; not only that he was a Titan, for that is not disputed, but that he was a virtuous and benevolent being, eminently serviceable to his age and country, capable of drawing harmony and design from chaos, and one who only needed an earlier and still wider authority to have made a more ordered and a more tolerant civilization for his own time, and to help the future."

Dustjackets with some light wear along edges, mostly at head and tail of spines. Djs reinforced with tape along parts of inside edges. Spines slightly sunned, more pronounced at volumes two and three, volume four very good+. Gilt top edge of volume four lightly faded. Very good condition. Item #55327

Price: $750.00