Churchill, Winston S.

8vo (230 by 150mm.), FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN ("To | Neville Chamberlain | from | Winston S. Churchill | Nov 5. 1931") on half-title, 8 illustration plates, 10 maps (all folding), original blue cloth lettered in blind on upper cover and in gilt on spine, some browning, a little spotting to edges, head and foot of spine bumped

Cohen A69.2(V).a

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

FROM THE GREATEST OF ALL THE WAR-TIME LEADERS, who would "never surrender", to the one-time proponent of the policy of "Appeasement". A HIGHLY RESONANT PRESENTATION COPY linking the two future war-time Prime Ministers.

Inscribed by Churchill three days after publication, Chamberlain has also added the date of January 1932 to the end of the text to record the date he finished reading the book.

The World Crisis was Churchill's account of the First World War and was originally published in six volumes between 1923 and 1931 (the third part was published as two volumes). This, therefore, is the concluding volume from the work considered by many to be Churchill's finest writing. As Robert Rhodes James notes "For all its pitfalls as history, The World Crisis must surely stand as Churchill’s masterpiece. After it, anything must appear as anti-climax" (see Robert Rhodes James, Churchill: A Study in Failure, 1900-1939 (1970), pp. 309-310).

Churchill and Chamberlain had first significantly worked together on the Widow, Orphans, and Old Age Pensions Act of 1925. Chamberlain, then Minister of Health, would receive most of the credit rather than Churchill, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. Against Churchill's envy, Chamberlain described his colleague as "a man of tremendous drive and vivid imagination but obsessed with the glory of doing something spectacular which should erect monuments to him" (see Robert Self, Neville Chamberlain: a biography (2006), p. 107).

The two men also expressed differences over the Local Government Act of 1929 and by the early 1930s both were seen as serious contenders for the leadership of the Conservatives. However, in January 1931 Churchill left the Conservative front bench over differences over policy in India. At the time of this inscription, therefore, Churchill was firmly out of favour and Chamberlain had just been appointed the new Chancellor after the October 1931 general election.