The World Crisis, full set of six first editions de Winston S. Churchill - 1923

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1923. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Here is a full first edition set of Winston Churchill's history of the First World War, originally published between 1923 and 1931. Of The World Crisis, Churchill bibliographer Frederick Woods wrote: "The volumes contain some of Churchill's finest writing, weaving the many threads together with majestic ease, describing the massive battles in terms which fitly combine relish of the literary challenge with an awareness of the sombre tragedy of the events." Churchill was in a special position to write this history, having served both in the Cabinet and on the Front. He served as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911 until 1915. After the failure in the Dardanelles and the slaughter at Gallipoli Churchill was scapegoated and forced to resign. He spent his political exile as a lieutenant colonel leading a battalion in the trenches. Before war's end, Churchill was exonerated and rejoined the Government, but the stigma would linger. Churchill may have meant for his history of the First World War to clear his name, but his six volume masterwork far exceeds this purpose. The U.S. is the true first edition, as U.S. Volume I publication preceded the British. Here is very good set of first edition, first printings. the set is notable for quite respectable shelf presentation for the edition and particularly clean contents. We find no spotting in the set and the sole previous ownership mark is a previous owner's name in pencil on The Aftermath ffep. First printings of volume I proved quite susceptible to spine sunning and blackening of the gilt. This copy suffers some of the usual spine sunning and darkening of the gilt, but is nonetheless an extremely clean copy with virtually no wear to the binding and truly exceptional contents - crisp, bright, and appearing unread. Even the untrimmed fore edges remain bright and clean. The remaining five volumes completing the set range from very good to near-fine condition. Wear to the bindings is minimal, the only notable exception being some fraying at the 1915 volume lower spine and corners. The 1915 volume compensates for the wear by being the first edition binding variant (See Cohen A69.1(II).b) with two stars on the spine and gilt lettering within a blind rule box on the front cover. Shelf appearance is better than usual, with only modest sunning to the spines and some staining to the 1916-1918 Part I spine. Apart from this flaw, the 1916-1918 volumes are fine, clearly unread with virtually no wear to the bindings, and crisp, bright contents. All five have clean bindings with minimal shelf wear, unfaded spines, and bright gilt. The Aftermath binding is clean and tight, but with some sunning to the spine and part of the rear cover, as well as faint staining to the lower front cover corner. The sixth and final volume - The Unknown War - has a clean and tight binding with only slight color shift between the covers and spine and trivial shelfwear at spine ends and corners. The contents are crisp, clean, and tight and the color folding map at p.388 is intact and properly folded. Bibliographic reference: Cohen A69.1(I-V).a, Woods/ICS A31(aa), Langworth p.103.