Winston S. Churchill | India. London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd., 1931

Winston S. Churchill

India. London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd., 1931

8vo. Discreet circular ink stamp on the title page, and again on page 141, of the “Manchester Reform Club Library.” Original orange cloth, cover and spine lettered in black; some fading, lacking jacket.

RARE VARIANT FIRST HARDCOVER EDITION

This slender volume of speeches about Gandhi and "Our Duty in India" was simultaneously published in hardcover and softcover editions, both much-prized today by collectors. The present copy represents the rarely encountered variant hardcover binding of the first edition, with spine type that is printed vertically rather than horizontally. Churchill bibliographer Ronald Cohen speculates that the original binding blocks for the first hardcover edition may have been scrapped after a very brief print run but that unexpectedly strong sales sent the publisher back for a hurried reprint that required using the blocks for the paperback edition, which had the spine type laid out vertically.

REFERENCE:

Cohen A92.1.b; Woods A38