Winston S. Churchill | A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. London: Cassell and Co., 1956-1958

Winston S. Churchill

A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. London: Cassell and Co., 1956-1958

4 volumes, 8vo. Numerous maps and tables. Original red cloth, pre-printed holograph-styled presentation notes from Winston Churchill tipped onto the front free endpapers of Volumes I-III, topstained, original pictorially printed jackets; topstains of Volumes I and IV faded, very minor foxing to fore-edges, minor creasing and soiling to jackets, some nicks to heads and tails of spine panels. [With:] 1-page typed note SIGNED (“Winston Churchill”), to Trevelyan, dated “6 December, 1956,” on 28 Hyde Park Gate stationery, tipped onto the rear free endpaper of Volume II.

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, PRESENTATION SET, WITH TYPED NOTE SIGNED TO G.M. TREVELYAN: “My dear Trevelyan, Thank you so much for your letter of November 29 and your good wishes. I value most highly what you have been good enough to say about my Second Volume…"

This first English edition of Churchill's sweeping four-volume history of England, her colonies, and the language that Churchill so venerated and ennobled in his own writings, was presented by Churchill to the noted historian G.M. Trevelyan. Trevelyan exerted a powerful influence on Winston Churchill, who read his many lengthy works of history closely, including Trevelyan’s book about Blenheim, his biography of Churchill’s close friend, Sir Edward Grey, and his History of England. Trevelyan, in turn, enjoyed reading Churchill. “So long as you are with us, it cannot be said that the race of statesmen who are men of letters is extinct,” he wrote to Churchill in 1930. After the first volume of this series was published, Trevelyan wrote again: “The time would come when they will stop reading us professional historians but not you!” When Volume II appeared, Trevelyan wrote, “I liked it even better than the first,” prompting the note of thanks from Churchill in reply.

AN IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY

REFERENCE:

Cohen A267.1(I-IV).a; Woods A138a

PROVENANCE:

George Macaulay Trevelyan (presentation note; ownership inscription)