The War Speeches of the Rt. Hon. Winston S. Churchill, the scarce U.S. issue of the three-volume "definitive" edition published during Churchill's second and final premiership

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1953. First U.S. edition. Hardcover. This is the quite scarce U.S. first "Definitive" edition, only printing of Churchill's war speeches in both dust jackets and the extremely rare publisher’s slipcase – only the fourth set we have offered thus and definitively the best-preserved set we have encountered. This edition was published during Churchill's second and final premiership.

While there were 4,700 copies of the British first edition, this incredibly small U.S. edition was limited to a mere 500 sets. These 500 sets were produced from British edition sheets. Internally, only the title and copyright pages differ from the British edition, but this U.S. first edition was bound quite differently and more elaborately than its British counterpart. Each of the volumes features a black cloth spine decorated and printed in gilt, over red cloth boards. The contents are bound with yellow-stained top edge and head and foot bands. The light blue and black dust jackets are illustrated with a reproduction from Churchill's hand-corrected typescript of the first Secret Session speech. Houghton Mifflin issued the three volumes in an undecorated navy leatherette slipcase.

This full U.S. three-volume set features beautiful fine volumes in very good plus dust jackets and slipcase. The volumes are immaculate inside and out, the bindings square and sharp-cornered, the contents crisp, clean, and tight, with no spotting or soiling, the topstain bright, the fore and bottom edges immaculate.

Provenance is unequivocally Churchillian; the sole previous ownership marks are the printed sticker of “The Churchilliana Company” affixed to each lower rear pastedown and to each dust jacket verso. This was the bookselling enterprise of Dalton Newfield (1918-1982), not only the world’s first Churchill-specialist bookseller, but also the senior editor of the International Churchill Society’s journal, Finest Hour. As an American WWII veteran, Dalton returned from wartime Europe with both an English bride and an abiding respect for Churchill.

The dust jackets are clean and bright, with no toning and no losses apart from neatly price-clipped upper front flaps. Light wear is mostly confined to extremities, with a little superficial scuffing to the surfaces - most likely minor injury suffered by the jackets as they were removed or replaced in the original publisher’s dark blue leatherette slipcase. That slipcase is in superior condition, clean and fully intact with minor, superficial shelf scuffs and blemishes. All three dust jackets are now protected with clear, removable, archival covers.

Of Winston Churchill’s Second World War oratory, 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.” Between 1941 and 1946, Churchill's war speeches were published in seven individual volumes in both British and U.S. editions. In 1952, early during Churchill's second premiership, the British publisher - Cassell - reissued the War Speeches as a new, "Definitive" three-volume British edition. This U.S. edition was issued in 1953. The three-volume edition of Churchill's War Speeches is considered superior to the original seven wartime volumes. New speeches are added, as is a very helpful index. Some of the original speeches considered peripheral are eliminated while others are retitled and chronological dates are replaced with brief transitional or introductory notes. The aesthetic improvement is particularly dramatic for this U.S. edition, in which three substantial, uniform volumes replace the original seven, differentially sized volumes, which were issued by three different publishers, several volumes printed on cheap, wartime paper.

Reference: Cohen A263.2, Woods A136(b), Langworth p.305