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and the government’s appeasement policy. Around the time of composition, Churchill was staying in Avignon, which he had visited before and where he found an opportunity to paint; but his mind was on Russia – he was finishing work on The Eastern Front , the final volume of The World Crisis , his celebrated multi-volume history of the First World War. The piece is not published in Churchill’s Collected Essays , nor noted by Cohen’s bibliography or in Gilbert’s biography and supplementary volumes. While typescripts drawn from Churchill’s lengthy career in journalism are encountered on the market from time to time, it is genuinely unusual to find a piece that speaks so clearly to an issue still urgently central to global politics – Russian claims in their neighbouring states – and the significant autograph revisions make it particularly desirable. 8 leaves, quarto. Top copy typescript with extensive autograph emendations, and signed, in red ink. Light browning and handling creases, soft vertical crease from old fold, otherwise very good. £30,000 [80696] 21 CHURCHILL, Winston S. Marlborough. His Life and Times. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, 1933–38 his ancestor and inspiration First edition, signed limited issue, number 111 of 155 copies signed by the author on the limitation leaf. Churchill’s biography of the first Duke of Marlborough, his ancestor who led allied forces to victory against Louis XIV, “took its place at once among the classics of historical writing. As the story of his ancestor’s leadership of a grand alliance to prevent the domination of the continent by a single power, it was also a source of inspiration to Churchill in his campaign against appeasement” ( ODNB ). 4 volumes, large octavo. Original orange Niger morocco by Leighton-Straker, spines lettered in gilt, the Duke of Marlborough’s arms on front covers in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, others untrimmed. Portrait frontispiece to each volume, 99 additional plates, 14 facsimiles of letters, and 182 maps and plans, several folding. Very slight lean to spines, inner hinge of vol. III reinforced at head, some spotting to initial and final leaves and to edges, else contents clean. A handsome set. ¶ Cohen A97.2(I–IV).a; Woods A40(a). £18,750 [158601]
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the eventual reconquest and reabsorption of these states or parts of them in the parent body”. Likewise, “Asiatic Communism” is making “extraordinary and almost feverish purchases of all the key war-metals and war materials on the largest scale and almost regardless of cost”, reminiscent of Germany in the immediate pre-war period. Meanwhile in Western Europe, “France . . . will never voluntarily relinquish the fruits of her hard-earned victory [and] is busily constructing an immense shield of steel and concrete defences”, while “German youth mounting in its broad swelling flood, will never accept the conditions and implications of the Treaty of Versailles”. As a result, “Germany, in spite of the gulf which yawns between Russian communism and every form of Western Civilization, looks instinctively to Russia & refuses to close the door to the East”, as indeed came to pass in just eight years with the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact. Churchill has made dozens of annotations to the typescript, chiefly changing punctuation and correcting the spelling, though also making more substantial alterations to wording. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, “Churchill was haunted by the spectre of the Bolshevik revolution. Soviet communism, he concluded, was the worst tyranny in history and Lenin and Trotsky more dangerous enemies than the Kaiser’s Germany” ( ODNB ). As secretary of state for war and air (1919–1921) he directed British military support against the Bolsheviks and to aid the White Russians. Churchill wrote the article during his “wilderness years”, his exile from government ensured by his opposition to its India policy. Over the following years he would become increasingly estranged as he steadfastly opposed Nazi Germany
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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