Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Winston S. Churchill. THE DREAM -Deluxe Limited Edition-. Churchill Literary Foundation, NH, 1987.
Price: US$500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Originally published in The Daily Telegraph in 1966, this is the first appearance in book form of Churchill's ethereal short story in which the ghost of his father, Randolph, visits him in 1947. The son reviews for his father all that has happened to the world since Randolph died in 1895 -- never revealing the role that he himself played in these events. This is a very good copy of the Deluxe Limited Edition, as issued by the International Churchill Society in red leather with moire endpapers, Number 363 in a limited edition of 500 copies. Seemingly unopened, with an infinitesimal scratch on the upper edge of the front face and some faint wear along the spine joints. Else fine. Laid-in is the original 1987 presentation letter from the International Churchill Society. Deluxe Limited Edition (500 copies) (Cohen A288.1) (Woods C527b).
Seller: CHARTWELL BOOKSELLERS, NEW YORK, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$575.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: Octavo, xvi, [4], 26, [2]. Red padded leather covers, embossed Marlborough arms on cover, title in gilt on spine. All edges gilt, silk endpapers. From a limited edition of 500 copies, this being number 474. Includes a letter from the International Churchill Society, thanking a patron for their contribution and describing this book. (Cohen A288.1). This text is from a short article written by Churchill in 1947. At a family dinner in 1946, the daughter of Winston Churchill, Sarah, asked her father if he had the power to have anyone join them for dinner, who would it be? She expected him to name someone like Napoleon or Caesar, but he replied "Oh, my father, of course." Churchill recorded this episode in an article simply titled "Private Article" and filed it away for many years. It was published by Sarah Churchill after his death in 1966 and later in this publication.
Seller: The First Edition Rare Books, LLC, Cincinnati, OH, U.S.A.
Price: US$600.00 + shipping
Description: This is a pristine copy of the first book publication, the finely bound limited first edition, Number 178 of 500 hand-numbered copies. The Dream is Churchill's revealing essay about a ghostly reunion with his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, in which Winston recounts the world events that have transpired since his father's death - without revealing his own role in them. Winston Churchill's father, Lord Randolph, died in January 1895 at age 45 following the spectacular collapse of both his health and political career. His son Winston was 20 years old. A few years later, Churchill sought permission to write his father's biography and then spent two and a half years researching and writing - a major literary effort, but apparently an emotional one as well. Of the work, Churchill wrote to Lord Rosebery on 11 September 1902 "It is all most interesting to me - and melancholy too" (R. Churchill, WSC, Companion Volume II, Part 1, p.438). Of course history and longevity would dramatically favor the son, but when Randolph died, Winston dwelt very much in his father's shadow, both emotionally and in terms of the political career to which he already aspired. It is in this small, intimate piece of writing that we catch Churchill with that shadow on the eve of his 73rd birthday. According to Churchill, a "foggy afternoon in November 1947" found him in his "studio at the cottage down the hill at Chartwell" attempting to paint a copy of a damaged portrait of Lord Randolph when he turned around to find his father sitting in a red leather armchair, looking just as Churchill "had seen him in his prime." What ensued was a conversation about what had - and had not - changed since Randolph's time, ranging from trivialities and individual personalities to politics and the broad sweep of world affairs. Churchill, of course, never reveals his role in much of this history. Churchill's summary observations and appraisals to his father make a worthwhile study in themselves. But these are perhaps overshadowed by the emotional overtones, which psychologists and sentimentalists will doubtless continue to parse for years to come. His family called it "The Dream." Churchill titled it simply "Private Article." Though he was seldom stinting with his words or their publication, Churchill locked the essay in a box where it remained, willed to his wife. Churchill died on 24 January 1965 - the same day his father died seventy years before. The Dream was first published a year after Churchill's death, on 30 January 1966, in the Sunday Telegraph and was subsequently included in The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill (1976). However, The Dream was not published in book form until September 1987, four decades after it was written and more than 22 years after Churchill's death. Fortunately, the edition rose to the occasion of the long wait. Richard Langworth of the International Churchill Society presided over a lovely limited edition of 500 hand-numbered copies. This was an elaborate production, printed on acid-free archival paper and bound in padded red leather with gilt decoration and the Churchill arms blind-stamped on the front cover. All page edges are gilt, with head and foot bands, as well as a satin page marker and silk endpapers. Langworth contributed a worthy Foreword and Sal Asaro a color illustration from an oil painting commissioned by the publishers. This copy, hand-numbered 178 of 500, is in fine, virtually as-new condition. This editions binding proved prone to hinge cracks, either starting or well along on most copies we encounter. This copy is an exception. The binding is square, tight, bright, and clean, with only a barely discernible, miniscule hint of imperfection at a few points the central front hinge. The contents are immaculate, clearly unread.Reference: Cohen A288.1, Woods/ICS A147, Langworth p.357
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$641.38 + shipping
Description: First separate edition, sole impression, number 75 of 500 copies only, of perhaps the most curious and insightful of Churchill's works: an imagined discussion with the ghost of his father Lord Randolph, written just after the Second World War and never published in his lifetime. Lord Randolph was a leading Conservative statesman whose career was cut short after a principled resignation, and died while Winston was a young man. Randolph was a cold and disciplinarian father, yet Winston idolized him, wrote his biography, and was shaped by his legacy throughout his career. The story narrates Randolph's ghost visiting Winston as he paints in the Chartwell studio. Winston recounts all that has happened since his father's death in 1895, the central conceit being he never hints at the many roles that he himself played in those events, nor mentions anything about his political career. "The story was Churchill's belated, subtly stated response to his father's conviction that he would be a failure in life. For all Churchill's seeming modesty in not mentioning to his father the fact that he had been prime minister and one of the saviours of Western civilization, the reader nonetheless inevitably concludes that Churchill's achievements in the tumultuous twentieth century were far greater than his father's in the relatively quiet and peaceful nineteenth. The avoidance of saying so makes the point all the more powerfully. Underlying it is an acute psychological appraisal of a boy who only ever wanted his father's approval, but never received it" (Robert, p. 906). In Churchill's lifetime he titled the story "Private Article", which he was to revise several times before filing it away and eventually leaving to Lady Churchill in his will. It was first published in the Sunday Telegraph in January 1966, and appeared in the Collected Essays in 1976. The Churchill Literary Foundation presented this limited edition to its supporters and did not sell it commercially. Provenance: the collection of Steve Forbes. Cohen A288.1. Andrew Roberts, Churchill, 2019. Octavo. Original red morocco, spine and front cover lettered in gilt, autograph gilt block and Churchill arms in blind to the front cover within foliate panel, gilt edges, moiré silk endpapers. Title page in red and black, double-page coloured illustration. Light rubbing. A near-fine copy.
Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom