Winston Churchill - My Early Life, Macmillan, 1944, inscribed by Churchill

Description: My Early Life, a Second World War "souvenir of 10, Downing Street" presentation copy, inscribed by Churchill and presented to the custodian of his secret Cabinet War Rooms on Churchill's last day as wartime prime minister Winston S. Churchill London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1944 Condition: Very Good plusJacket Condition: Very Good This noteworthy association copy of Churchill’s autobiography of his early life was inscribed by Churchill and presented on the final day of his wartime premiership to the man who helped create and served as custodian of the Cabinet War Rooms. Five lines inked in black on the front free endpaper read: “To | G. Rance | from | Winston S. Churchill | 1945”. Affixed to the recto of the succeeding blank is a typed presentation message on “10 Downing Street, Whitehall” stationery. Four typed lines read: “With Mr. Churchill’s Compliments. | A Souvenir of 10, Downing Street | 1940-1945 | 26th July, 1945”. Below the date, “Mr. Rance” is inked in black. To create a secret location safe from air raids, a sprawling maze of subterranean offices below Whitehall was transformed into the Cabinet War Rooms and became the center of Britain’s war effort. Churchill’s War Cabinet met here 115 times. Churchill delivered four wartime addresses here and “from a room no larger than a lavatory held… conversations with President Roosevelt” using a phone installed by the U.S. Signal Corps. “The Cabinet War Rooms were in use 24 hours a day until 16 August 1945, when the lights were turned off in the Map Room for the first time in six years.” To the 300 people who worked here during the Second World War, it was “The Hole” or simply “down there” but to Churchill it was “This Secret Place.” Perhaps more than any other individual, George Rance (1874-1973) helped create and keep the secret. Rance was a civil servant filling pay sheets of government ministry charwomen when he was called upon to help set up the Cabinet War Rooms. Rance fitted the bunker with furniture, equipment, and supplies, attaching unauthorized applications to legitimate ministry orders and having the surplus material delivered to “c/o Mr. Rance” and then smuggled into the War Rooms. Rance ran the bunker throughout the war, eventually receiving an MBE. “If it was the personality of Churchill that gave This Secret Place its character, it was the skill of George Rance that kept things running smoothly… Both were old soldiers. Both were the same age… Of course one was the Prime Minister and the other the custodian, but it was more a feeling of the colonel of the Regiment and the Regimental Sergeant-Major.” In 1965, at the age of 91, Rance sat in a back pew of St. Paul’s Cathedral during Churchill’s state funeral. “He remembered then the few gruff words that had passed between the ex Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal Scots Fusiliers and the ex-Sergeant of the Rifle Brigade when the war was over. ‘I suppose, Rance,’ Churchill had said ‘you think I don’t know all you have done. Well, I do. Thank you. Thank you very much.” Clearly, Churchill did regard Rance. On July 26, 1945, Churchill’s Conservatives lost the General Election and Churchill lost his premiership to Clement Attlee. That same day, this inscribed copy was presented to George Rance. This is the fourth and final 1944 wartime reprint of Churchill's extremely popular autobiography, covering the years from his birth in 1874 to his first few years in Parliament. During the war, Macmillan issued these reprints (from first edition plates) in dark blue cloth wrapped in tan dust jackets. This inscribed presentation copy is very good plus in a very good dust jacket. The blue cloth binding is square, tight, clean, and unfaded, with bright spine gilt, light wear to extremities, and minor blemishes to the covers. The contents show only a hint of spotting to the endpapers and mild age-toning. Laid in is a vintage copy of Rance’s invitation to Churchill’s state funeral. The dust jacket is unclipped with minor wear to spine ends and corners, modest spine toning, and a .5 inch stain to the upper front face, just above “MY” in the title. The dust jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover. The book is housed in a blue cloth Solander case with a crimson calf spine label. Reference: Cohen A91.6.d, Woods/ICS A37(d.4), Langworth p.139 Ref #: 008057 CHURCHILL BOOK COLLECTOR We are Churchill Book Collector, a professional bookseller specializing in books and other published works by and about the great twentieth century statesman and acclaimed writer, Sir Winston Churchill. We offer both a singular inventory and approachable expertise. The integrity of our inventory is backed by our membership in the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), and the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA). Churchill's official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, rightly called Churchill's long life "remarkable and versatile". Statesman, soldier, war correspondent, ardent social reformer, combative cold warrior, painter - Churchill was many things, but perhaps above all a master wordsmith. We’re here to help Churchill’s words find your shelves. Our extensive inventory features some of the rarest material offered – including fine first editions and inscribed copies – as well as reading copies and works about Churchill’s life and time. While we specialize in Churchill, our inventory also includes noteworthy first and collectible editions by other authors, ranging from Xenophon to T. E. Lawrence, spanning exploration and empire to twentieth century fiction. We are able to help with anything from finding individual books to assembling full collections, working closely with individual collectors to identify and accommodate their preferences and budget. We are also able to commission preservation cases and fine bindings. Please contact us if you have books to sell. We buy, and in some cases consign, fine and collectible individual items, as well as whole collections.

Price: 17000 USD

Location: San Diego, California

End Time: 2024-11-20T02:24:24.000Z

Shipping Cost: 20 USD