Savrola

London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1900. 1st Edition. Hardcover. This is Churchill's third book and only novel. A very young Churchill was exuberant about publication at the time. Even though Savrola was his third published book, it was actually the first book he undertook and the second he completed. He would later make deprecating comments about the work. In his 1930 autobiography he wrote, "I have consistently urged my friends to abstain from reading it [Savrola]." However, his mixed feelings about his only novel did not keep Churchill from writing a foreword to a new edition in 1956, in which he said: "The preface to the first edition in 1900 submitted the book 'with considerable trepidation to the judgment or the clemency of the public.' The intervening fifty-five years have somewhat dulled though certainly not changed my sentiments on this point."

Irrespective of Churchill's feelings about his book and his limitations as a novelist, this novel certainly provides insight into the early perspective and sentiment of the then very young Churchill. Only 1,500 copies of the first British impression were printed and the survival rate is low, making this considerably more scarce than the U.S. first edition.

Here is a first British edition, first printing. This is a respectable, very good overall copy with some flaws. On the positive side, the green cloth binding is bright and unfaded, showing only light wear at the corners and spine extremities. Of particular note is the unfaded spine color. Detracting from the external appearance, the binding is slightly cocked - as are nearly all copies of this edition - and the texture of the spine cloth is slightly mottled. The contents are tight and retain the original black endpapers with no splits or gutter breaks, but there is intermittent spotting throughout and a previous owner name inked on the ffep. The fore edge of the text block also bears a small burn scar (likely an errant cigarette) affecting a .25 inch portion of the edges of pages 321 through 334.

Reference: Cohen A3.2.a, Woods/ICS A3(ba.1), Langworth p.41.