Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Edited by Randolph S. Churchill. The Sinews of Peace. Cassell And Company Ltd, London, 1948.
Price: US$20.49 + shipping
Description: Hardback First Edition. Original orange boards are in good condition despite a little fading to the extremities and spine. Internally the binding is tight and although lightly toned the pages are clean. pp. vii 256. Overall, a good copy. The PostWar Speeches of Winston S. Churchill.nbsp;
Seller: St Marys Books And Prints, Stamford, United Kingdom
Winston S. Churchill. The Sinews of Peace. Cassell and Company Ltd., London, 1948.
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Description: This is the British first edition, only printing, of the first of Churchill's five postwar speech volumes. Here is a very good plus copy in a very good dust jacket. The dark orange cloth binding is clean, tight, and square with sharp corners and only light shelf wear to extremities. The contents are bright and clean with no previous ownership marks. We note only minor dust soiling to the top edges. The dust jacket is unclipped, retaining the original publishers price on the lower front flap, and substantially complete, with only fractional loss at the spine head and upper flap fold corners. There is mild scuffing to the spine and soiling to the white rear panel. The dust jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover.Having done so much to win the war, Churchill faced frustration of his postwar plans when his wartime government fell to Labour in the General Election of July 1945. He remained Leader of the Opposition until the General Election of late October 1951, which returned the Conservative Party to Parliamentary majority and Churchill to Downing Street for his second and final Premiership at the age of 76.The Sinews of Peacecontains 29 speeches spanning October 1945 through the end of 1946. These include the famous "Iron Curtain" speech given at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri on 5 March 1946, where Churchill coined the phrase that described the division between the Soviet Union's sphere of influence and the West.This speech incisively framed the Cold War that would dominate the second half of the Twentieth Century. Then-President Harry S. Truman traveled to Fulton in order to personally introduce Churchill. Of equal note is Churchill's famous speech of 19 September 1946 at Zurich University promoting a United Europe.It was this speech that lent bold impetus to formation of what would eventually become the European Union, with Churchill an early, ardent, and vital advocate of pan-European integration.Reference: Cohen A241.1, Woods/ICS A124(a), Langworth p.284
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Winston S. Churchill. The Sinews of Peace. Cassell and Company Ltd., London, 1948.
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Description: This is an exceptional copy of the British first edition, only printing, of the first of Churchill's five postwar speech volumes. Copies thus near fine plus in a near fine plus dust jacket have become elusive and are the starting point of filling a premium set.The dark orange cloth binding is clean, tight, and square with sharp corners and only a hint of shelf wear, confined to extremities. The contents are bright and clean with no previous ownership marks and no spotting. We note only light dust soiling to the top edges. The lower front flap of the dust jacket is neatly price-clipped, but apart from this, the dust jacket is not only bright and crisp but entirely complete, with no further loss. Shelf presentation is excellent, with just a few tiny, white scuffs. Even the white rear face remains bright with only slight overall soiling. The dust jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover.Having done so much to win the war, Churchill faced frustration of his postwar plans when his wartime government fell to Labour in the General Election of July 1945. He remained Leader of the Opposition until the General Election of late October 1951, which returned the Conservative Party to Parliamentary majority and Churchill to Downing Street for his second and final Premiership at the age of 76. The Sinews of Peace contains 29 speeches spanning October 1945 through the end of 1946. These include the famous "Iron Curtain" speech given at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri on 5 March 1946, where Churchill coined the phrase that described the division between the Soviet Union's sphere of influence and the West.This speech incisively framed the Cold War that would dominate the second half of the Twentieth Century. Then-President Harry S. Truman traveled to Fulton in order to personally introduce Churchill. Of equal note is Churchill's famous speech of 19 September 1946 at Zurich University promoting a United Europe.It was this speech that lent bold impetus to formation of what would eventually become the European Union, with Churchill an early, ardent, and vital advocate of pan-European integration.Reference: Cohen A241.1, Woods/ICS A124(a), Langworth p.284
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: This 4 August July 1948 holograph letter is from "indefatigable Churchill literary assistant" Denis Kelly to Desmond Flower of Cassell regarding uncorrected errors in the soon-to be published British first edition of the first volume of The Second World War, The Gathering Storm (published 4 October 1948). The holograph letter is inked entirely in Kellys hand on the recto of a sheet of Hyde Park Gate stationery. Dated by Kelly "11/8/48" (11 August 1948), it reads: "Dear Flower, Ive found a number of rather hefty misprints in The Gathering Storm, & will send you a list " Kelly acknowledges " that it is too late to do anything about it now " but suggests a review protocol for Cassell to follow " before you print a second edition " Tellingly, Kelly concludes "I havent broken the news to W.S.C. yet, but I hope there isn't a second gathering storm about to break!" Pencil annotation at the upper left reads: "Mr. B [indecipherable} saw Mr. Kelly". The letter was acquired from an archive regarding Churchills publishing history with Cassell.Condition is near fine, clean with minor corner creases and centered vertical and horizontal folds consonant with original mailing. When Newman Flower of Cassell secured publication rights to Churchills war memoirs, it was "perhaps the greatest coup of twentieth century publishing." It fell to Newmans son, Desmond John Newman Flower (1907-1997), to oversee the actual publication and manage an author of Churchills towering stature and exacting standards."Almost the last thing that Flower did before joining the Army in 1940 was to prepare the first volume of Churchills wartime speeches." Desmond landed in Normandy and won the MC in Operation Bluecoat in August 1944, returning to Cassell in 1946 to begin a new battle - to rebuild the firm, which had lost both its offices and warehouse to bombing and now faced the crippling constraint of paper rationing. Churchills post-war literary output, particularly the six volumes of The Second World War, not only ensured his own financial security, but also proved the essential asset to Cassells postwar recovery.Churchill was an author that Cassell could neither control nor do without. Churchill had written to Flower personally on 14 July not only to personal supply Errata and Corrigenda, but also to specify where they would be placed in the published edition. Further errors were identified just before the final binding, resulting in an additional tipped-in slip. Among the embarrassing errors (if one regards French military prowess) was describing the French Army as the poop rather than the prop of France. Churchill wrote to Flower on 10 August "I was shocked at some of the mistakes". By November of 1949, Cassell had bowed to its author and published a second edition of Volume I incorporating corrections.Denis Kelly (1916-1990) served during the Second World War in the Indian Mountain Artillery in India and Burma (1941-45). After the war Kelly joined Churchills literary team, first as an archivist, then as a literary assistant on Churchills war memoirs. On 14 May 1947, Churchill met Kelly at Chartwell. Showing him a cellar "stacked from floor to ceiling" Churchill tasked Kelly thus: "Your task, my boy, is to make Cosmos out of Chaos." Kelly approached the task with not only diligence, but some reverence: "I realised that I was handling the personal papers of a man who had experienced and shaped the history of the world in the last fifty years " (Gilbert, Vol. VIII, p.331.) Kelly became a vital part of Churchills literary team for the rest of Churchills productive life as an author, not only assisting with The Second World War and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, but also preparing the abridged, one-volume Memoirs of the Second World War (published 1959). Kellys papers, including correspondence with Sir Martin Gilbert, now reside in the Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College, Cambridge.
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$1850.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: This is an exceptionally fine set of First English editions in unclipped dust jackets. There is a closed tear on the front jacket face of THE SINEWS OF PEACE and a chip at the spine head of THE UNWRITTEN ALLIANCE dust jacket. The books and jackets are otherwise all virtually mint. First English Edition Set (Cohen A241.1-A273.1) (Woods A124- A142).
Seller: CHARTWELL BOOKSELLERS, NEW YORK, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$2400.00 + shipping
Description: Here is a superior jacketed set of all five of Churchill's post-WWII speech volumes, increasingly challenging to assemble thus. This set is among the best we have been able to offer. All five volumes in this set are in truly fine condition. Their jackets vary from very good plus to near-fine plus. All five cloth bindings are strikingly clean, tight, and square with sharp corners, bright spine gilt, and virtually no wear. The contents of all five volumes are exceptionally clean. We find no previous ownership marks. The sole instance of spotting in the set is mild and entirely confined to the top edges of Stemming the Tide. The text block edges of all five volumes are otherwise clean apart from a little shelf dust to the top edges of The Sinews of Peace.The dust jackets are equally impressive. All five jackets are unclipped, retaining the original front flap prices. All five jackets are entirely unfaded, with exceptional color and shelf presentation. The only loss to report is fractional chipping at the spine head of The Sinews of Peace. The jackets are otherwise complete, and show only minor blemishes and varying degrees of light soiling to the white rear panels. Stemming the Tide has the more desirable and elusive first state dust jacket. All five dust jackets are fitted with clear, removable, archival covers. These volumes span the period from Demobilization in late 1945, when Churchill was Leader of the Opposition, through his second Premiership (1951-1955) into a time when Churchill passes "into a living national memorial" of the time he has lived and the Nation, Empire, and free world he has served.The events encompassed by these years are in many ways no less dramatic than those of the war years including the unraveling of the British Empire, the post-war recovery, the onset of the Cold War, Soviet acquisition of the atomic bomb, development of the hydrogen bomb, and the beginning of the space age. Even at the waning of his life and career, Churchill met and framed these exceptional times with a singularly experienced voice. By the time Churchill's first postwar speeches volume was published, his oratorical prowess was unrivaled in public life. Churchill had a remarkable full half century of vigorous public speaking and dozens of published volumes to his credit.Before his final volume of postwar speeches was published, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, both for his books and "for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values."Among many noteworthy speeches in these volumes is Churchills "Iron Curtain" speech given at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri on 5 March 1946, where Churchill coined the phrase that described the division between the Soviet Union's sphere of influence and the West, incisively framing the Cold War that would dominate the second half of the twentieth century. There is also Churchill's 7 May 1948 speech to the Congress of Europe, which, along with other speeches, showed Churchill to be an early, ardent, and vital advocate of pan-European integration, and lent impetus to what would eventually become the European Union. And there is Churchills speech "The Twentieth Century - Its Promise and Its Realization," delivered in the spring of 1949 to an international conference tasked with exploring the socio-political implications of scientific progress. This speech is a tour de force survey of the period 1900-1945 that is both incisive and lyrical, humbling and inspiring.These postwar speech volumes are scarcer than Churchills War Speeches volumes; all five of these books had only a single printing each. Also of note, the fifth and final volume, The Unwritten Alliance, is the last of Churchill's books published in his lifetime and was issued only in Britain, with no U.S. edition. Reference: Cohen A241.1, A246.1, A255.1, A264.1, A273; Woods/ICS A124(a), A128(a), A130(a), A137(a), A142; Langworth pages 184, 296, 301, 309, 338
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$3000.00 + shipping
Description: Here is a jacketed set of all five of Churchill's post-WWII speech volumes, increasingly challenging to assemble thus. This set is unequivocally the best we have ever encountered, and virtually unobtainable thus. All five volumes in this set are in truly fine condition, their jackets near fine plus or better. All five cloth bindings are strikingly clean, tight, and square with sharp corners, bright spine gilt, and virtually no wear. The contents of all five volumes are uniformly bright and as clean as the come. We find no spotting. We find no previous ownership marks. Even the page edges are impressively clean, with only light dust soiling to the top edges of The Sinews of Peace and a hint of age-toning to the otherwise immaculate Stemming the Tide and The Unwritten Alliance page edges.The dust jackets are remarkably impressive. All five jackets are unclipped, retaining the original front flap prices. All five jackets are entirely unfaded, with exceptional color and shelf presentation. Trivial shelf wear is confined to extremities and perhaps no worse than might be encountered if these books were brand new and just shelved in a local bookstore. Stemming the Tide has the more desirable and elusive first state dust jacket. The only flaw of note is a bit of spotting to the white flap fold corners of In the Balance and Stemming the Tide. All five dust jackets are fitted with clear, removable, archival covers. These volumes span the period from Demobilization in late 1945, when Churchill was Leader of the Opposition, through his second Premiership (1951-1955) into a time when Churchill passes "into a living national memorial" of the time he has lived and the Nation, Empire, and free world he has served.The events encompassed by these years are in many ways no less dramatic than those of the war years - the unraveling of the British Empire, the post-war recovery, the onset of the Cold War, Soviet acquisition of the atomic bomb, development of the hydrogen bomb, and the beginning of the space age (to name a few).These postwar speech volumes are scarcer than Churchills War Speeches volumes; all five of these books had only a single printing each. Moreover, not all of the fourth volumes sheets were issued in a dust jacket matching the rest of the volumes; the later issue dust jacket is solid black with no matching oak leaf border at the top and bottom edges. Also of note, the fifth and final volume, The Unwritten Alliance, is the last of Churchill's books published in his lifetime and was issued only in Britain, with no U.S. edition. Reference: Cohen A241.1, A246.1, A255.1, A264.1, A273; Woods/ICS A124(a), A128(a), A130(a), A137(a), A142; Langworth pages 184, 296, 301, 309, 338
Seller: Churchill Book Collector ABAA/ILAB/IOBA, San Diego, CA, U.S.A.