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75 MACMILLAN, Harold. Signed set of his published memoirs , together with five other related works, seven Christmas cards, and an autograph letter signed by Macmillan’s grandson. London: Macmillan, 1966–88 “an unusually candid account of a political life” – signed set of macmillan’s celebrated memoirs A highly appealing collection of works by and about Harold Macmillan, each volume of the memoirs signed on the title page by him; all are first editions, first impressions, with the exception of the final volume. The collection comprises the six volumes of memoirs: Winds of Change ; The Blast of War ; Tides of Fortune ; Riding the Storm ; Pointing the Way ; At the End of the Day ; with a signed first edition of Macmillan’s The Past Masters: Politics and Politicians 1906–1939 (1975); and first editions of Charles Morgan’s The House of Macmillan (1943); Harold Macmillan: A Life in Pictures (1983); War Diaries: Politics and War in the Mediterranean (1984); and Alistair Horne’s Macmillan 1894–1956, Volume I of the Official Biography (1988). The books are accompanied by seven Christmas cards signed by Macmillan’s grandson, Alexander Macmillan, second Earl Stockton; a menu card for a Macmillan publishing annual dinner (1958), signed in full by Harold Macmillan; and an autograph letter signed from Alexander Macmillan thanking Ted and Doreen Meldon “for your kindness on my grandfather’s death. As many commented, it marks the passing of an era” (Macmillan publishing letterhead, dated 16 January 1987; Macmillan had died on 29 December 1986). ODNB remarks that Macmillan “devoted much time to the preparation of his memoirs, published between 1966 and 1972. His journals and diaries, kept systematically from the early 1940s, were from the start intended to form the basis of memoirs: he had
observed Churchill’s habit of preserving documents especially for this purpose, but in his case a diary was the preferred method. The diaries were candid in a controlled way, and clearly intended for posterity. There were gaps, notably during the crucial period of the Suez crisis. Intended as three volumes, the memoirs spread into six, for the author was his own publisher. But the expansion should not be regretted: the volumes are an unusually candid account of a political life, in the sense that they follow very closely the contemporary diaries (even when the latter are not being quoted). Even more unusually for a prime minister’s memoirs, they admit mistakes.” Provenance: from the library of Ted Meldon, an employee of W. H. Smith and then Macmillan publishing, for whom he worked as a rep; he is pictured in an issue of Macmillan News (Summer 1974), very much in the swing of things at a Macmillan promotional party at famous Fleet Street pub Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. 6 works in 11 volumes, octavo. Original cloth. With dust jackets. Illustrations in colour and half-tone. All volumes in very good condition in unclipped dust jackets. £1,875 [156646] 76 MCNAMARA, Robert – BISHOP, Jim. A Day in the Life of President Johnson. New York: Random House, 1967 First edition, first printing, presentation copy from the author to President Johnson’s secretary of defense Robert S. McNamara, inscribed on the initial blank “To Robert McNamara, This is the way I see the President, closeup. Sincerely, Jim Bishop. May 1967”. Appointed secretary of defense in 1961 by President Kennedy, and retained by President Johnson, McNamara played a major role in the Cold War. McNamara did not have the same close relationship with Johnson that he had with Kennedy and had deep
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