Description

“ONE OF THE BEST POLITICAL BIOGRAPHIES IN ENGLISH:” LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY WINSTON CHURCHILL

CHURCHILL, Winston. Lord Randolph Churchill. London: Macmillan, 1906. Two volumes. Octavo, original full burgundy cloth gilt-stamped with the Churchill coat-of-arms, uncut.

First edition of Churchill’s distinguished biography of his father, inscribed in Volume I: “Sarah from Winston S. C.”

“Outside Parliament, Churchill devoted much of his time during 1904 and 1905 to compiling a biography of Lord Randolph. He was motivated in part by a desire for an intimate knowledge of his father that had been denied him during Lord Randolph’s lifetime? When the book emerged in 1906, it was widely hailed as one of the best political biographies in English and its prose style is still greatly admired today? Contemporary readers were struck by the frankness and openness of the account, contrasting favorably with the pious acts of homage served up as biography by other sons of famous fathers. It was, after all, a study in failure rather than success. The writing of the biography marked the point at which Churchill at last outgrew his father’s memory” (Grant, 47). The recipient of this copy was Winston Churchill’s paternal aunt, Lady Sarah Isabella Wilson, the daughter of the seventh Duke of Marlborough. The younger sister of Winston’s father, Sarah was only ten years older than Winston. Illustrated with numerous full-page plates and manuscript facsimiles. Cohen A17.1. Woods A8a. Langworth, 68-71 Evidence of bookplate removal. Pencil note of provenance on front free endpaper of Volume I.

Interiors fine, light rubbing to extremities of publisher’s cloth. Fine condition, most scarce inscribed.