Marlborough: His Life and Times, Volume II

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933. First edition. Hardcover. This is a jacketed U.S. first edition, first printing of the second volume of Winston Churchill's monumental biography of his great ancestor, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough. During the years covered by this volume (1688-1702), “Marlborough is shown growing in military experience and political sagacity… Out of this volume emerges a vivid picture of Marlborough in his prime, ambitious, aggrieved, outspoken, bland and redoubtable, soon to exercise command over a military coalition vaster than any man wielded until the advent of Napoleon.” The volume features a profusion of illustrations, maps, and plans.

The British first edition was issued in four volumes. The U.S. publisher chose to split the first two volumes into two books each, resulting in a six-volume set that is otherwise identical in content to the British. Only when the sixth and final volume was published in 1938 were all six U.S. first editions offered in the uniform blue and gold dust jackets.

This U.S. first edition, first printing of Volume II is near-fine in a very good, uniform issue blue and gold dust jacket. The green cloth binding is tight, clean, and square with bright spine gilt. The only trivial exterior flaws are tiny bumps to the rear cover corners and the slightest hint of scuffing to the front face. The contents are clean and bright with no spotting or inscriptions. The Scribner's "A" on the copyright page confirms first printing. Even the untrimmed fore edges remain clean. The dust jacket remains bright and unclipped, still bearing the original $2.75 price on the upper front flap. There is trivial wear, mostly at the spine ends and corners, with minor scuffing to the front face. Fractional loss is confined to the spine head and corners. The dust jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover.

Marlborough was initially conceived a full 40 years before publication of the final volume. Churchill originally considered the idea of the biography in 1898, returning to it in earnest in 1928. Marlborough ultimately took 10 years of research and writing and is the most substantial published work of Churchill's "wilderness years" in the 1930s, which he spent politically isolated, often at odds with both his own party and prevailing public sentiment. This decade saw Churchill pass into his sixties with his own future as uncertain as that of his nation. It is perhaps not incidental that Churchill’s great work of the 1930s was about a great ancestor. Churchill may have wondered more than once if the life history he was writing might ultimately eclipse his own. Richard Langworth says "To understand the Churchill of the Second World War, the majestic blending of his commanding English with historical precedent, one has to read Marlborough.”

Few would accuse Churchill of objectivity. Nonetheless, as a work of history it drew high praise. Upon reading the proofs, James Lewis Garvin, editor of The Observer, wrote “I think it to be… the greatest of all your works… Your full brush has never had more mastery over space and colour…” Two months after Volume I was published, on 12 December 1933, T.E. Lawrence wrote to Churchill: “I finished it only yesterday. I wish I had not… The skeleton of the book is so good. Its parts balance and the main stream flows… Marlborough has the big scene-painting, the informed pictures of men, the sober comment on political method, the humour, irony and understanding of your normal writing: but beyond that it shows more discipline and strength: and great dignity. It is history, solemn and decorative.” When Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953, it was partly for “mastery of historical and biographical description” on the strength of Marlborough, which was specifically cited and quoted by the Swedish Academy.

Reference: Cohen A97.4(II).a, Woods/ICS A49(ba), Langworth p.169.