Winston S. Churchill | My Early Life: A Roving Commission. London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd., 1931

Winston S. Churchill

My Early Life: A Roving Commission. London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd., 1931

8vo. Photographic frontispiece, maps, one of which folding, 16 tipped-in illustrations, INSCRIBED BY CHURCHILL on the front free endpaper; scattered foxing. Original magenta cloth, cover and spine gilt-lettered; some rubbing and shelfwear, spine sunned with a closed tear to the tail, corners bumped, some foxing to endpapers.

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, LATER ISSUE, PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY CHURCHILL: “With all the compliments of the season, From Winston S. Churchill 1931.”

The present volume formed a part of the library of Henry “Hank” Luce III, the eldest son of Henry R. Luce, founder and longtime editor of Time magazine. Few, if any, similar seasonal inscriptions from Churchill are known to exist. Adding to the mystery, there is the shadow of a thoroughly erased previous inscription from a different hand on the preceding front free endpaper. How this book came to be in the Luce family library is unknown. Winston Churchill visited New York City during the Christmas holiday season of 1931, when was infamously struck by a car on Fifth Avenue on the evening of 13 December, while on his way to the home of his close friend and investment advisor, Bernard Baruch. Baruch, then-age 61, was at this time in the midst of what would be a long-term affair with the 28-year-old Clare Booth; already a Vanity Fair magazine journalist in 1931. Clare Booth would marry Henry Luce in 1935, just weeks after Henry Luce’s divorce from his son Hank’s mother.

REFERENCE:

Cohen A91.1.gm; Woods A37a

PROVENANCE:

Henry “Hank” Luce III