Britain's Strength: Speech by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill, in the House of Commons, August 20, 1940 de Winston S. Churchill - 1940

New York: The British Library of Information, 1940. British Library of Information edition, only printing. Pamphlet. This is a beautifully preserved copy of one of Churchill's most famous speeches, occasioned by the Battle of Britain and honoring the RAF pilots who almost single-handedly prevented Nazi invasion of England. The British first edition - with gray wraps printed in red - is the edition most commonly seen. Here is the considerably more scarce British Library of information edition, published in New York for the American audience. This pamphlet is one in a series of Churchill's speeches printed by the British Library of Information in New York. The British Library of Information published twenty-nine editions of statements, speeches, and broadcast addresses by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, beginning with his first speech as Prime Minister of May 13, 1940 and ending with the broadcast address of November 29, 1942. These editions were often issued within two or three days of delivery and "reveal the political determination of the British government to bring the inspiration and steadfastness of the Prime Minister and the British nation to an American nation not yet engaged in the war. Indeed, twenty-two of the BLOI speech pamphlets were published before Pearl Harbor." (Cohen, Volume I, p.513, A120) Churchill encapsulated and immortalized the struggle that America would not formally join for more than a year when he uttered the words: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." The famous bibliographic reference Printing and the Mind of Man, which surveys the impact of the printed word on Western Civilization, singles out this speech. This rare first U.S. edition of this remarkable Churchill speech is in truly exceptional, fine condition. The pamphlet is 8 pages, wire stitched, in self-wrappers, and measures 9 x 6 inches. The paper is bright, crisp, and clean with no wear or creases. The binding staples are bright and tight with no corrosion. A flawless copy in all respects. The pamphlet is protected in an archival mylar sleeve. Bibliographic reference: Cohen A131.2, Woods A60(b), Printing and the Mind of Man (PMM) 424.