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CHURCHILL, Winston S.
Lord Randolph Churchill.
First Edition, First Impression. This copy with a tipped-in two-page letter signed in a secretary's hand, on embossed House of Commons stationery, from Churchill to the civil servant and historian Sir Spencer Walpole., expressing his indebtedness "for the kindness which has prompted you to forward me the corrections which occurred to you as necessary in future editions.. I will revise it most carefully in view of them," and thanking him for his "most complimentary and encouraging opinion" of it; "It was a labour of love to me, and I am very glad to think that it has been accomplished without giving rise to bitter controversy." The book was published on 2 January 1906 to "almost universal acclaim in the Press" (Churchill Winston S. Churchill II) the Sunday Times remarking on Churchill's "maturity of judgement, levelheadedness and discretion" and the Spectator praising his style: "He has chosen the grand manner... but the general effect is of dignity and ease." Churchill also received plaudits from a number of political biographers, J. A. Spender, biographer of Campbell-Bannerman and Asquith, calling it a "brilliant book", and W. F. Monypenny, author of the Life of Disraeli, remarking that "alike in style and architecture and for its spirit, grasp and insight the book seems to me truly admirable." To these we can add Walpole, who had also written a family biography in his two-volume life of Spencer Perceval, and later wrote the official biography of Lord John Russell.
2 vols., octavo. Original burgundy cloth, titles and family crest gilt to upper board, titles gilt to spine. Photogravure portrait frontispiece to each, 6 other photogravures in all, 7 other plates one of them coloured and 3 facsimiles, one folding, one double-page. Ownership inscription of Walpole's son-in-law and literary executor Francis C. Holland verso of the front free endpaper of vol. I. Free endpapers a little browned, some foxing to the fore-edge, hinges of Volume I slightly cracked, but a very good set, cloth mildly rubbed, spines a touch dull. .
