The War Speeches, a full set of seven British first editions - Into Battle, The Unrelenting Struggle, The End of the Beginning, Onwards to Victory, The Dawn of Liberation, Victory, and Secret Session Speeches

London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1941-1946. First edition, first printings. Hardcover. This is a full, finely-bound set of British first edition, first printings of the Second World War speeches of Winston S. Churchill. Few books are as emblematic of Churchill’s literary and leadership gifts as his war speeches volumes. Between 1941 and 1946, Churchill's war speeches were published in seven individual volumes. The British first editions were visually striking, but were printed on cheap wartime paper, bound in coarse cloth, and wrapped in bright, fragile dust jackets. They proved highly susceptible to spotting, soiling, and fading, so the passage of time has been hard on most surviving first editions.

This set is a considerable improvement upon the original bindings. The bindings feature full crimson Morocco goatskin with raised spine bands bracketed by gilt rules, gilt printed title, author, volume number, and publication date, and a gilt lion rampant in each unprinted spine compartment. The covers feature gilt-rule borders. The contents are bound with all edges gilt and green and red silk head and tail bands.

Condition of this set is near fine. The fine bindings are square, clean, and tight with sharp corners. We note no appreciable wear, only a few trivial blemishes and an unobtrusive hint of uniform toning to the spines. The contents are well-suited to the fine bindings, with no previous ownership marks and only light spotting to a few volumes. There were two states of the first printing of the first, second, and sixth volumes. In this set, Into Battle is not only first printing, but first state, confirmed by the absence of pagination at pages 78 and 294. The Unrelenting Struggle is likewise first state, with irregular pagination at p.281, as is Victory, confirmed by incorrect pagination at p.177. The gilt page edges are uniformly bright and clean, with only a few small scuffs.

During his long public life, Winston Churchill played many roles worthy of note - Member of Parliament for more than half a century, soldier and war correspondent, author of scores of books, ardent social reformer, combative cold warrior, Nobel Prize winner, painter. But Churchill's preeminence as a historical figure owes most to his indispensable leadership during the Second World War, when his soaring and defiant oratory sustained his countrymen and inspired the free world. Of Churchill, Edward R. Murrow said: "He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle." When Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953, it was partly “…for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.”

Reference: Cohen A142.1.a, A172.1.a, A183.1.a, A194.1.a, A214.1.a, A223.1.a, A227.2.a; Woods/ICS A66(a.1), A89(a.1), A94(a.1), A101(a.1), A107(a.1), A112(ab), A114(b); Langworth pages 204, 213, 218, 223, 228, 234, 250.