Lord Randolph Churchill.

New York: The Macmillan Company,, 1906. First US edition, first printing, of Churchill's biography of his father, the Conservative Party statesman Lord Randolph Churchill. This copy is from the collection of Churchill's bibliographer Ronald Cohen. Lord Randolph was a significant figure in British political life during the 1880s, serving as Chancellor, Leader of the Commons, and Secretary for India, until his resignation from the Cabinet in 1886 on a point of principle stalled his political career. Winston's relationship with his father was respectful rather than warm; however, "when Winston later reread his father's letters, he realized how much he had thought and cared for him... [and] was determined to vindicate his memory. In 1906 he published a two-volume biography of his father, which remains the most detailed written up to the end of the twentieth century. Winston believed that he owed everything to his father" (ODNB). The British edition was published 2 January 1906. Langworth says the US edition was published in February, and Cohen does not name a month. However the New York Times advertises the book as "ready this day" on 6 January. Visually the UK and US editions are similar. Langworth asserts "If you plan to own only one first edition of each Churchill work, I recommend this one. It is better bound than the English, with finer cloth and gilt top page edges; it is rarely subject to the heavy foxing of its UK counterpart" (Langworth, p. 72). Provenance: Ronald Cohen, with his ownership inscription in pencil on the front free endpaper of each volume. Cohen's Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill, published in three volumes in 2006, is the authoritative source for collectors, librarians, and dealers. Two volumes, octavo. Original red cloth, spines and front covers lettered in gilt, family crest stamped in gilt to front covers, top edges gilt. Photogravure portrait frontispieces, 13 plates and 3 facsimiles, of which 1 folding and 1 double-page. Very slight rubbing at extremities, shadow of removed sticker around spine of vol. I, inner hinge of same a little split preceding half-title, nonetheless cloth bright and contents clean: a very good copy. Cohen A17.2. Richard Langworth, A Connoisseur's Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill, 1998.