Presented by Pom Harrington, owner of Peter Harrington Rare Books.
Octavo. Original orange cloth, spine and front board lettered in black between blind rules, publisher’s device in blind to lower outer corner of both boards. With the dust jacket.
First edition, first impression, the rare case-bound “library” issue, variant binding with the spine lettering reading “India – Churchill” only. Of utmost rarity in the dust jacket, with just three other such copies traced at auction in the last fifty years. Cohen does not record the initial print-run for India, but this is moreover the only case-bound copy we have handled.
The 1930s are characterized as Churchill’s wilderness years, with his unrelenting opposition to Hitler being seen as main cause for his ostracism. However “another, and earlier reason lay in his bitter opposition to Baldwin’s India policy … Churchill had always hit hard; not for him a round of gentlemanly sparring between friends. His fight to maintain full control of India employed not just the clenched fist but the bludgeon” (Woods, Artillery of Words).
