Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Winston S. Churchill. My Early Life A Roaming Commssion. Thornton Butterworth Limited, London, 1930.
Price: US$83.41 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Spine Shows Fading And Denting/Fraying To Ends. Boards Show A Few Minor Marks Only With Denting To Corners. All Pages Clean And Tightly Bound
Seller: Stirling Books, Stirling, United Kingdom
Price: US$115.72 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: RO20259139: 1930. In-8. Relié toilé. Etat d'usage, Couv. légèrement passée, Dos satisfaisant, Quelques rousseurs. 392 pages - en anglais - nombreuses planches en noir/blanc - quelques planches volantes - dos insolé - mors légèrement fendus - 2 photos disponibles. . . . Classification Dewey : 420-Langue anglaise. Anglo-saxon
Seller: Le-Livre, SABLONS, France
Winston S Churchill. My Early Life. Thornton Butterworth Limited, 1930.
Price: US$120.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 1930 2nd ed no dj lightly read prev owners sig
Seller: John Hopkinson - Bookseller, Cremona, AB, Canada
Winston S. Churchill. My Early Life: A Roving Commission. London : Thornton Butterworth, 1930.
Price: US$122.50 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Second impression, 1930. Fuschia-colored cloth hardcover with gilt lettering. Spine faded/discolored and with several small tears, 1.5" splitting at front cover edge. Edgewear, fading. Page edges darkening and with a splash of waterstaining, moderate spotting. Owner's name on first page, else no markings noted.
Seller: Alplaus Books, Alplaus, NY, U.S.A.
Winston S. Churchill. My Early Life. A Roving Commission. Thornton Butterworth, 1930.
Price: US$128.33 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 1930 third impression without it's dust jacket, faded spine has short splits in the cloth at the ends, page edges tanned with some foxing and dust marking. Shipped from the UK in recyclable card packaging.
Seller: High Street Books, New Mills, United Kingdom
CHURCHILL, Sir Winston. MY EARLY LIFE : A ROVING COMMISSION. Thornton Butterworth Limited, 1930.
Price: US$192.49 + shipping
Description: Second impression, printed in the same year as the first impression. Good condition only. Previous owners name. The boards are well worn and the spine shows heavy signs of wear.
Seller: Surrey Hills Books, Cranleigh, United Kingdom
Price: US$358.17 + shipping
Description: Good to very good copy in the original gilt-blocked cloth. Spine bands and panel edges somewhat bumped and rubbed as with age. Remains quite well-preserved overall. Physical description: 392 p., [15] leaves of plates : ill., maps ; 23 cm. Subject: Biographies - Churchill, Winston S. 1 Kg.
Seller: MW Books Ltd., Galway, Ireland
CHURCHILL, Winston S.. My Early Life. A Roving Commission.. , 1930.
Price: US$368.06 + shipping
Description: London: Thornton Butterworth, (1930). 8vo. Orig. mauve cloth with gilt title on front cover & spine (rebacked preserving the original spine strip). (392pp.). With frontisp., 15 full-page plates, illusts., and 7 maps of which 1 is fold. 1st ed. Uncut. Slightly foxed throughout. Complete. (Woods A37a).
Seller: Berkelouw Rare Books, Berrima, NSW, Australia
Price: US$400.00 + shipping
Description: Good to very good copy in the original gilt-blocked cloth. Spine bands and panel edges somewhat bumped and rubbed as with age. Remains quite well-preserved overall. Physical description: 392 p., [15] leaves of plates : ill., maps ; 23 cm. Subject: Biographies - Churchill, Winston S. 1 Kg.
Seller: MW Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$417.06 + shipping
Description: A first edition, first impression of Churchill's autobiographical work exploring his formative years, with illustrations throughout. An immediate success, this work covers Winston Churchill's schooldays and youth, his education, and his time during the Second Boer War. It is thought by many to be his best work, written while he was in his mid fifties.With illustrations throughout depicting the author.The first edition, first impression with a second state half-title and binding as issued. This edition sold 11,200 copies. In the publisher's original full cloth binding. Externally rather worn; a tape repair covering some loss to the head of the spine, which is worn at the tail of spine and joints. A tidemark to the front board. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright and clean. Good Only
Seller: Rooke Books PBFA, Bath, United Kingdom
Winston S. Churchill. My Early Life a Roving commission.. Thornton Butterworth Ltd, London, 1930.
Price: US$449.14 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 392 pages including author's preface, maps and illustrations and index. Coarse plum cloth with gilt lettering on front and spine (5 gilt title/author lines to front). 12 titles listed to verso of fly title.Spine is faded and has some damp spots. Lower page edges are uncut. Some foxing to prelims and considerable foxing to page edges and to some margins but not affecting contents. Front gutter cracked. Previous owner's bookplate on front pastedown. Size: 8vo
Seller: Bookcase, Carlisle, United Kingdom
Price: US$449.14 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: 392 pages including author`s preface, maps and illustrations and index. Smooth plum cloth with gilt lettering on front and spine (5 gilt title/author lines to front). 12 titles listed to verso of fly title. Spine rather sunned and chipped with some light staining. Closed edges foxed and tanned, some light foxing to prelims, lower edges of prelims uncut. Content clean and firm. Size: 8vo
Seller: Bookcase, Carlisle, United Kingdom
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: This is a gorgeous copy of the Fourth Printing of the First English edition, which was issued in the year of publication and is identical to the first printing. Bound in smooth pink cloth this copy retains all of its original vivid pink luster on the front and rear faces, with the notoriously fade-prone spine only modestly faded and not worn or frayed. The binding is crisp and the contents fine. There is a light splattering of pink on the front free endpapers, else fine. An excellent example of a near-first First. First English Edition (Fourth Printing) (Cohen A91.1.f) (Woods A37a). 8vo (392 pages, with photo frontispiece, maps, plans, one folding map, 16 tipped-in illustrations)
Seller: CHARTWELL BOOKSELLERS, NEW YORK, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: This is a beautiful copy of the Third Printing of the First English edition, which was issued in the year of publication and is identical to the first printing. Bound in smooth pink cloth, this copy retains all of its original vivid pink luster on the front and rear faces, with the notoriously fade-prone spine very modestly faded and not worn or frayed. The binding is square and the contents fine. There is a former-owner name and a Dublin address in ink on the front pastedown, and the name is again inked on the Author's Preface page. Else fine. A handsome example, preserved in an interesting, professionally rendered, card wrapper that appears to preserve fragments of the original dust jacket. First English Edition (Third Printing) (Cohen A91.1.e) (Woods A37a). 8vo (392 pages, with photo frontispiece, maps, plans, one folding map, 16 tipped-in illustrations)
Seller: CHARTWELL BOOKSELLERS, NEW YORK, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$513.31 + shipping
Description: First edition, second state. 8vo. 392 pp. Publisher's purple cloth, gilt lettered to the spine and upper board, contemporary ownership inscription of an A[?] Wentworth-Day of 61 Pall Mall SW1 to the front pastedown. Frontispiece, 16 plates, including a folding map, and 11 illustrations in the text Sunning to the spine, occasional marking to the covers, some mild foxing, else a decent set. Woods, A37(a). Langworth, pp. 132-133. There are 12 other works by Churchill listed on the half title verso and is bound in smooth cloth with five lines of gilt lettering to the upper board.
Seller: Bow Windows Bookshop (ABA, ILAB), Lewes, United Kingdom
Price: US$593.74 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: TRUE FIRST EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION (11 CHURCHILL TITLES ON 1/2 TITLE RECTO). OWNERSHIP SIGNATURE ON FIRST FREE END PAPER. CHURCHILL'S EARLY BIOGRAPHY, WRITTEN BETWEEN THE WORLD WARS. DAMAGE TO TOP AND BASE OF BACK STRIP. FADED SPINE. EXTERNAL 2CM SPLIT OF CLOTH AT HINGE OF FRONT BOARD.SLIGHTLY COCKED. PHOTOGRAPHIC AND IN-TEXT MAP ILLUSTRATIONS. ONE TIPPED-IN MAP.
Seller: BooksCardsNBikes, Stratford, ON, Canada
Price: US$745.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: This is the first edition, first impression with eleven previous titles on the verso of the half title page, as required in true first impressions. In pristine quarter dark brown leather binding with gilt title, incorporating original smooth red cloth boards with their gilt title over three lines and blindstamps. With new endpapers. All illustrations including photographs and maps, one fold-out, are present and in very good condition. Light foxing and marks on few of the outer leaves including the first page of text at the border, but the leaves are mostly clean of foxing. Very good condition in a pleasing leather binding.
Seller: Treasure House Books, Franschhoek, WCAPE, South Africa
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: This is a beautiful copy of the Second Printing of the First English edition, which was issued in the very month of publication and is identical to the first printing. Bound in rough pink cloth, this copy retains most of its original vivid pink luster on the front and rear faces, with the notoriously fade-prone spine modestly faded but not worn or frayed. The binding is square and the contents fine. There is a tiny vintage Times Book Club sticker on the rear pastedown. A handsome example of a near-first First. First English Edition (Second Printing) (Cohen A91.1.d) (Woods A37a). 8vo (392 pages, with photo frontispiece, maps, plans, one folding map, 16 tipped-in illustrations)
Seller: CHARTWELL BOOKSELLERS, NEW YORK, NY, U.S.A.
Winston S. Churchill. My Early Life. Thornton Butterworth Limited, London, 1930.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Description: This is the first edition, first printing, first state, first binding state of Winston Churchill's autobiography. Two states of the first edition, first printing are identified, with a list of either 11 or 12 Churchill titles in the boxed list of "Works by the same Author" on the half title verso. With 11 titles on the half title verso, this copy is definitively first state. There were also a number of first edition binding states, bound in either a coarse or a smooth plum colored cloth, with the title stamped on the front cover in either three or five lines. Precedence goes to the coarse cloth and three lines on the front cover which, together with 11 titles on the half title verso, denote first edition, first printing, first state, first binding state. In short, this copy is among the first printed and bound by the publisher. The first editions binding proved especially vulnerable to fading, soiling, and wear, and the contents quite susceptible to spotting. Condition of this copy is very good overall. Unusually for the edition, the spine retains strong plum hue, far less faded than typical. Nonetheless, the binding does show some typical flaws. The boards are bright, but with mild soiling and some shelf wear to extremities. The binding remains tight, but with a slight forward lean. And although the spine color is well-preserved, there is a dark stain at the lower third of the spine, above the publisher's name. The contents are quite respectably bright for the edition and minimal spotting is primarily confined to the page edges. The title page remains uncut, still connected to the succeeding dedication page. The sole previous owner name, inked on the front free endpaper recto, includes a "Toronto" address, leading us to speculate that this copy may have been one of the quite scarce Canadian issues of the British first edition (denoted only by a different dust jacket). Corroborating this speculation is "$4.50" written on the upper final free endpaper verso - the original price of the Canadian issue. Also on that page is a date of "10/30" written in the same pencil and hand as the price, as well as a succession of six date stamps spanning December through January (no year specified). A cosmetic split to the rear endpaper gutter partially exposes the intact mull beneath, but does not affect binding integrity.My Early Life covers the years from Churchills birth in 1874 to his first few years in Parliament. One can hardly ask for more adventurous content. These momentous and formative years for Churchill included his time as an itinerant war correspondent and cavalry officer in theaters ranging from Cuba, to northwest India, to sub-Saharan and southern Africa. Churchill also recounts his capture and escape during the Boer War, which made him a celebrity and helped launch his political career.Herein Churchill says:"Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Don't be content with things as they are. 'The earth is yours and the fulness thereof'. Enter upon your inheritance, accept your responsibilities. Don't take No for an answer. Never submit to failure. You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was made to be wooed and won by youth." (MEL, p.74)By the end of his own twenty-fifth year, Churchill had been one of the worlds highest paid war correspondents, published his first five books, made his first lecture tour of North America, braved and breasted both battlefields and the hustings, and been elected to Parliament, where he would take his first seat only weeks after the end of Queen Victorias reign.My Early Life remains one of the most popular and widely read of all Churchill's books. An original 1930 review likened it to a "beaker of Champagne." That effervescent charm endures; a more recent writer called it "a racy, humorous, self-deprecating classic of autobiography." To be sure, Churchill takes some liberti
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Churchill, Winston S.. My Early Life: A Roving Commission. Thornton Butterworth, London, 1930.
Price: US$834.12 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First impression of the first edition with 11 titles listed on half title reverse. Light foxing on preliminary pages.
Seller: Beach Hut Books, Lingfield, United Kingdom
Winston S. Churchill. My Early Life. Thornton Butterworth Limited, London, 1930.
Price: US$850.00 + shipping
Description: This is the first edition, first printing, first state, first binding state of Winston Churchill's autobiography. Two states of the first edition, first printing are identified, with a list of either 11 or 12 Churchill titles in the boxed list of "Works by the same Author" on the half title verso. With 11 titles on the half title verso, this copy is definitively first state. There were also a number of first edition binding states, bound in either a coarse or a smooth plum colored cloth, with the title stamped on the front cover in either three or five lines. Precedence goes to the coarse cloth and three lines on the front cover which, together with 11 titles on the half title verso, denote first edition, first printing, first state, first binding state. In short, this copy is among the first printed and bound by the publisher. The first editions binding proved especially vulnerable to fading, soiling, and wear, and the contents quite susceptible to spotting. Condition of this copy is very good overall, sound and complete, despite some flaws endemic to the edition. The coarse cloth binding is square and tight, the boards bright with mild bumps to the lower corners, the spine toned and spotted, but nonetheless with bright, clearly legible gilt print. The contents are clean. Age-toning is modest and spotting is quite light for the edition, substantially confined to the endpapers and page edges. Affixed to the front pastedown is the printed bookplate of "Stuart McGregor Philpott". This seems to have been the original owner, evidenced by Philpott's name and year inked in what is ostensibly his hand at the upper left front pastedown: "Stuart Philpott 30".My Early Life covers the years from Churchills birth in 1874 to his first few years in Parliament. One can hardly ask for more adventurous content. These momentous and formative years for Churchill included his time as an itinerant war correspondent and cavalry officer in theaters ranging from Cuba, to northwest India, to sub-Saharan and southern Africa. Churchill also recounts his capture and escape during the Boer War, which made him a celebrity and helped launch his political career.Herein Churchill says:"Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Don't be content with things as they are. 'The earth is yours and the fulness thereof'. Enter upon your inheritance, accept your responsibilities. Don't take No for an answer. Never submit to failure. You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was made to be wooed and won by youth." (MEL, p.74)By the end of his own twenty-fifth year, Churchill had been one of the worlds highest paid war correspondents, published his first five books, made his first lecture tour of North America, braved and breasted both battlefields and the hustings, and been elected to Parliament, where he would take his first seat only weeks after the end of Queen Victorias reign.My Early Life remains one of the most popular and widely read of all Churchill's books. An original 1930 review likened it to a "beaker of Champagne." That effervescent charm endures; a more recent writer called it "a racy, humorous, self-deprecating classic of autobiography." To be sure, Churchill takes some liberties with facts and perhaps unduly lightens or over-simplifies certain events. Nonetheless, the factual experiences of Churchills early life compete with any fiction, and any liberties taken are pardonable, in keeping with the wit, pace, and engaging style that characterize the book.Reference: Cohen A91.1.a, Woods/ICS A37(aa), Langworth p.131. First edition, first printing, first state, first binding state.
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$977.50 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Hardcover; 392 pages. FIRST EDITION. Pink clothbound hardcovers with gilt titles on cover and spine. Heavily sunned spine. Little wear around edges. Bumped corners. The head of the spine is fraying. Bookplate on ffep, otherwise clean. The pages are yellowing but still quite bright, clear, and clean. Includes many black & white photo plates, and a fold-out map of South Africa inbetween p. 366 and p. 367. Small rip to the dedication page. No jacket. VG-
Seller: J. Wyatt Books, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Churchill, Winston S.. MY EARLY LIFE - A ROVING COMMISSION. Thornton Butterworth, London, 1930.
Price: US$1200.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo, 392 pages. In Very Good condition. Bound in modern unsigned half red leather with marbled paper boards, paneled spine with gilt lettering and tooling. Light bumping to corners. Small bookplate to front pastedown. text block lightly but consistently foxed. Two small water-drop marks to top edge of text block. First Edition, First Printing, First State, with 11 titles to the half-title verso. Shelved case 5. 1374372. Shelved Dupont Bookstore. First Edition, First Printing, First State.
Seller: Second Story Books, ABAA, Rockville, MD, U.S.A.
Winston Churchill. My Early Life. A Roving Commission.. Thornton Butterworth (London), 1930.
Price: US$1219.10 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First Edition. Octavo, 11 titles by Churchill listed to the verso of the half title, frontispiece portrait of Lady Randolph Churchill, profusely illustrated throughout with 28 illustrations and maps; of which many are full page plates, folding general map illustrating Churchills journey during his capture, imprisonment and escape in South Africa/Mozambique during the Boer War. Bound in royal navy, half morocco gilt, spine with raised bands, gilt ruled in six compartments, gilt lettering and gilt 'lion rampant' motifs in compartments, top edge gilt, pp. 392. Published by Thornton Butterworth (London), 1930. Some occasional light spotting and browning, otherwise a fine copy in a beautiful binding. This title is Winston Churchill's only volume of sustained autobiography, covering his formative years from his birth in 1874 until his election as MP for Oldham in 1900. According to the ODNB: A witty and elegiac account of his youth shot through with regret at the decline of the social and imperial order in which he had grown up. Among his most widely read works, it provides a highly entertaining account of his childhood, schooldays at Harrow, military training at Sandhurst, experiences as a war correspondent in Cuba, and service attached to the Malakand Field Force on the North-West Frontier of India, charging with the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, and as a POW in South Africa during the Boer War. (Cohen A91.1.c; Woods A37(a).) Please contact us for shipping costs if ordering from outside the UK.
Seller: GEORGE HANCOCK RARE BOOKS PBFA, BATH, United Kingdom
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: This is a very good copy of the First Printing of the First English edition in the First State Binding (per Cohen) with the three-line cover title block and a half-title list of Churchill works that omits Volume I of THE WORLD CRISIS. Bound in rough pink cloth, this copy is unevenly faded but retains a good deal of vivid color on the front and rear faces. The notoriously fade-prone spine is only moderately faded here, well-rounded and healthy without any fraying. The binding is crisp, the contents are fine and unfoxed, with two leaves (pages 9-11) roughly separated. There is a vintage ink gift inscription hand-dated "Xmas 1930" on the front free endpaper. Overall, a very nice example. First English Edition (First State/First Binding) (Cohen A91.1.b) (Woods A37a). 8vo (392 pages, with photo frontispiece, maps, plans, one folding map, 16 tipped-in illustrations)
Seller: CHARTWELL BOOKSELLERS, NEW YORK, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$1604.08 + shipping
Description: First edition, first impression, of Churchill's only volume of sustained autobiography, covering his formative years from his birth in 1874 until his election as MP for Oldham in 1900. This copy is from the collection of Churchill's bibliographer Ronald Cohen. Among his most widely-read works, it provides a highly entertaining account of his childhood, schooldays at Harrow, military training at Sandhurst, experiences as a war correspondent in Cuba, service attached to the Malakand Field Force in the North-West Frontier Province of India, charging with the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, and as a POW in South Africa during the Boer War. Overall, it gives a "witty and elegiac account of his youth shot through with regret at the decline of the social and imperial order in which he had grown up" (ODNB). This copy is in the second state of half-title and binding, without priority of issue. Provenance: Ronald Cohen, with his ownership inscription in pencil on the front free endpaper. Cohen's Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill, published in three volumes in 2006, is the authoritative source for collectors, librarians, and dealers. Cohen A91.1.c; Woods A37(a). Octavo. Original pink cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front cover lettered in gilt in five lines, publisher's device and broad single rules to covers in blind, bottom edge untrimmed. Half-tone frontispiece and 15 other plates, folding map, maps to text. Parental gift inscription dated 1933 to front free endpaper. Spine a little sunned, very minor wear at corners. A very good copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Winston S. Churchill. My Early Life. Thornton Butterworth Limited, London, 1930.
Price: US$1750.00 + shipping
Description: This is the first edition, first printing, first state, first binding state of Winston Churchill's autobiography. Two states of the first edition, first printing are identified, with a list of either 11 or 12 Churchill titles in the boxed list of "Works by the same Author" on the half title verso. With 11 titles on the half title verso, this copy is definitively first state. There were also a number of first edition binding states, bound in either a coarse or a smooth plum colored cloth, with the title stamped on the front cover in either three or five lines. Precedence goes to the coarse cloth and three lines on the front cover which, together with 11 titles on the half title verso, denote first edition, first printing, first state, first binding state. In short, this copy is among the first printed and bound by the publisher. The first editions binding proved especially vulnerable to fading, soiling, and wear, and the contents quite susceptible to spotting. Condition of this copy is very good overall, unusually clean within and without despite some flaws endemic to the edition. The coarse cloth binding is square, clean, and tight. Three corners remain sharp, the upper rear cover corner slightly bruised. The covers retain bright color, the spine uniformly toned but clean and far brighter than usual, still retaining much of its distinctive plum hue, as well as bright spine gilt. The upper rear cover shows a little soiling, as do the right and lower portions of the front cover. Light shelf wear is confined to extremities, the lower corners slightly frayed, the spine ends a little wrinkled. The contents are quite clean for the edition. We find no internal spotting just a few scattered spots confined to the fore edges. We note mild age-toning, most readily apparent to the page edges, a blacked out previous owner name on the front pastedown, and transfer browning to a small, triangular portion of p.109 at the gutter corresponding to a fragment of an old newspaper clipping laid therein. My Early Life covers the years from Churchills birth in 1874 to his first few years in Parliament. One can hardly ask for more adventurous content. These momentous and formative years for Churchill included his time as an itinerant war correspondent and cavalry officer in theaters ranging from Cuba, to northwest India, to sub-Saharan and southern Africa. Churchill also recounts his capture and escape during the Boer War, which made him a celebrity and helped launch his political career.Herein Churchill says:"Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Don't be content with things as they are. 'The earth is yours and the fulness thereof'. Enter upon your inheritance, accept your responsibilities. Don't take No for an answer. Never submit to failure. You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was made to be wooed and won by youth." (MEL, p.74)By the end of his own twenty-fifth year, Churchill had been one of the worlds highest paid war correspondents, published his first five books, made his first lecture tour of North America, braved and breasted both battlefields and the hustings, and been elected to Parliament, where he would take his first seat only weeks after the end of Queen Victorias reign.My Early Life remains one of the most popular and widely read of all Churchill's books. An original 1930 review likened it to a "beaker of Champagne." That effervescent charm endures; a more recent writer called it "a racy, humorous, self-deprecating classic of autobiography." To be sure, Churchill takes some liberties with facts and perhaps unduly lightens or over-simplifies certain events. Nonetheless, the factual experiences of Churchills early life compete with any fiction, and any liberties taken are pardonable, in keeping with the wit, pace, and engaging style that characterize the book.Reference: Cohen A91.1.a, Woods/ICS A37(aa), L
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Winston S. Churchill. My Early Life, finely bound. Thornton Butterworth Limited, London, 1930.
Price: US$2000.00 + shipping
Description: This is a finely bound copy of the first edition, first printing of Churchills autobiography. My Early Life sold very well at the time and has seen a great many editions since, many of them collectible in their own right, but of course a premium attaches to first editions. The challenge for collectors is that the plum colored binding of this edition proved especially susceptible to fading, soiling, and wear; nearly all copies are considerably spine faded. Hence this finely bound example. We commissioned the binding in full dark plum morocco, deferential to the original binding color. The binding features hubbed spine with gilt-tooled and decoratively framed raised bands, gilt lion rampant in the unprinted compartments, and twin brown spine labels. The beveled edge boards are framed in gilt and gilt-tooled turn-ins framing handsome marbled endpapers. The contents are bound with silk head and tail bands and gilt top edge.Condition of the binding is perfect. Condition of the contents is very good for the edition, with no previous ownership marks and light spotting confined to prelims and page edges. This copy is identified by Cohen (Vol. I, p.330) as first edition, first printing, second state, distinguished by 12 Churchill titles in the list of "Works by the same Author" on the half-title verso.My Early Life covers the years from Churchills birth in 1874 to his first few years in Parliament. One can hardly ask for more adventurous content. These were momentous and formative years for Churchill, including his time as a war correspondent and cavalry officer in theatres as varied as Cuba, northwest India, and sub-Saharan and southern Africa. This time contained a wide range of experiences in Churchills life. Not only was he developing as an author, publishing his first books, and making his first lecture tour of North America, but this was also the time of his capture and daring escape during the Boer War, which made him a celebrity and helped launch his political career. Churchill took his first seat in Parliament only weeks after the end of Queen Victoria's reign.My Early Life remains one of the most popular and widely read of all Churchill's books. And for good reason, as the work certainly ranks among the most charming and accessible of his many books. An original 1930 review likened it to a "beaker of Champagne." That effervescent charm endures; a more recent writer called it "a racy, humorous, self-deprecating classic of autobiography." Churchill takes some liberties with facts and perhaps unduly lightens or over-simplifies certain events, but this is eminently forgivable and in keeping with the wit, pace, and engaging style that characterize the book.Reference: Cohen A91.1.c, Woods/ICS A37(aa), Langworth p.131.
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$2566.53 + shipping
Description: First edition, first impression, pre-publication presentation copy from the publisher, inscribed on the front free endpaper, "To my friend Charles Havell from his friend Thornton Butterworth 14-10-30". The book was published six days later on 20 October. 14 October is the earliest date for which inscribed copies are known. It is the same date that Churchill inscribed a copy to Neville Chamberlain (noted by Cohen) and to Lloyd George and Stanley Baldwin (both handled by us). Curiously, the only other copy inscribed by Butterworth which we could trace was inscribed on publication day (20 October) to his literary agent Curtis Brown (sold at Sotheby's, 2002). The recipient of this copy could not be firmly traced, but is possibly Cedric Charles Walter Havell (1895-1979), awarded the Military Cross in 1915, and afterwards a director of the Imperial Tobacco Company. Thornton Butterworth was Churchill's publisher from 1919 to 1939, and aside from My Early Life also published Churchill's The World Crisis, India, Thoughts and Adventures, Great Contemporaries, and Step by Step. My Early Life is Churchill's only volume of sustained autobiography, covering his formative years from his birth in 1874 until his election as MP for Oldham in 1900 - a "witty and elegiac account of his youth shot through with regret at the decline of the social and imperial order in which he had grown up" (ODNB). Among his most widely read works, it provides a highly entertaining account of his childhood, schooldays at Harrow, military training at Sandhurst, experiences as a war correspondent in Cuba, and service attached to the Malakand Field Force on the North-West Frontier of India, charging with the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, and as a POW in South Africa during the Boer War. This copy has the second state half-title (the first state omitted the first volume of The World Crisis from the list of Churchill's works, which the second state instates). However, it is in the first binding state with the front cover stamped in 3, rather than 5, lines. This is unusual - Cohen had not seen such a copy and speculated "perhaps even all copies of the second state will be found in binding cases in which the front cover is stamped in 5 lines". However, he recognized that "since the printing and cancelling events did not parallel the binding event, it may be expected that some second state copies will be found in the earlier cases and some first-state copies will be found in the later cases, particularly since both states were available prior to the initial publication date". Such states are certainly not indicative (as evidenced by the inscription) of any priority. Cohen A91.1.c; Woods A37(a). Octavo. Original pink cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front cover lettered in gilt in three lines, publisher's device and broad single rules to covers in blind, bottom edge untrimmed. With folding map and 16 plates. Spine sunned, inner hinges tender, lightly spotted, newspaper clipping offset to pp. 62-3: a good copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom
Winston Churchill. My Early Life. Thornton Butterworth Limited, 1930.
Price: US$7000.00 + shipping
Condition: As New
Description: AN ESPECIALLY HANDSOME AND FINE COSWAY-STYLE BINDING, full crushed morocco by Asprey, the upper cover with an inlaid oval portrait of Churchill set into the cover and framed with a fine gilt bordering of triple gilt fillet lines with further gilt tooled chain decoration, with large corner gilt tooled devices of rampart British lions and portcullises, the spine with raised bands separating the six compartments which are gilt tooled in panels and decorated with elaborate borders and with central gilt lion and portcullis devices repeated between the gilt tooled bands, two compartments gilt lettered and framed, double gilt ruled board edges, wide turn-overs gilt tooled matching the framework of the covers around red moire silk endpapers, a.e.g. In all a stunning binding. Housed and protected in a red cloth-covered slipcase. 392 pp. First edition, first printing. A very fine copy indeed, internally pristine and the binding without flaw. SCARCE, AND THIS AN OUTSTANDING COPY IN BEAUTIFUL RED COSWAY-STYLE MOROCCO, and one of Churchill's best of his many books, some say, his very best. It is an entertaining autobiographical work about his early years, up through his experiences as a soldier and the beginning of his political career. The work includes a daring escape reminiscent of the exploits of Indiana Jones after he had been captured by the Afrikaners during the Boar Wars, his escapades with the Malakand Field Force and the relief of Ladysmith and his entry into the House of Commons. It also includes intimate portraits of his childhood, family life and days as a cadet.
Seller: Reagan's Rare Books, Moseley, VA, U.S.A.
Price: US$20000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: The rarest of the rare: A First English edition in the original dust jacket. The very fragile jacket is intact and retains brilliant pink color on the front and rear faces. The spine color has faded out almost completely but the spine type has not; it remains vivid. There is horizontal loss approximately 2 1/2-inches in length and 1-inch in width along the left upper edge of the front face and jagged vertical loss approximately 1-inch wide and deep at the spine head. The jacket is otherwise in exceptionally good condition, with edge-chips and closed tears that do not detract. The book itself is in beautiful condition, bound in smooth pink cloth that retains most of its glorious original color, with only nominal fading to the fade-prone spine. The binding is the Second State of the First Printing (per Cohen), with the variant five-line title block on the cover and the cancel-half-title listing the first volume of THE WORLD CRISIS that was missing on First State half-title pages. The binding is crisp and tight, the corners are razor sharp and the contents are fine and unfoxed. A prize, to be sure. First English Edition (First Printing/Second State) (Cohen A91.1.b) (Woods A37a). 8vo (392 pages, with photo frontispiece, maps, plans, one folding map, 16 tipped-in illustrations)
Seller: CHARTWELL BOOKSELLERS, NEW YORK, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$28873.47 + shipping
Description: First edition, first impression, in a very presentable example of the extremely rare dust jacket, retaining much of its vibrant colour. A conspicuously attractive copy of Churchill's "witty and elegiac account of his youth shot through with regret at the decline of the social and imperial order in which he had grown up" (ODNB). My Early Life, Churchill's first volume of sustained biography, is a highly entertaining account of his childhood, schooldays at Harrow, military training at Sandhurst, experiences as a war correspondent in Cuba, and service attached to the Malakand Field Force on the NW Frontier of India, charging with the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, and as a POW in South Africa during the Boer War. This copy is of the second state, with 12 lines of Churchill titles on the half-title verso, and in the second state binding, with 5-line lettering to the front cover (the first state has 3-line lettering). Cohen A91.1.b; Woods A37(a). Octavo. Original pinkish violet cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. With dust jacket. Housed in a burgundy quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Half-tone frontispiece and 15 other plates, folding map, maps to text. Gilt of spine a little oxidised, a few other minor pale marks, slight tape residue to front free endpaper recto and offsetting to following leaf, a bright, square copy, title page unopened; jacket spine sunned, variable fading to panels, a few scuffs to front, splits to folds, other nicks, chips and tears, old tape repairs on verso but remaining very good. Housed in a burgundy quarter morocco solander box, spine lettered in gilt and decorated with a lion centre tool.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom