Winston S. Churchill - India, second printing, hardcover, inscribed by Churchill

Description: India, an author's presentation copy of the scarce hardcover issue inscribed by Churchill the month following publication to James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon and first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland Winston S. Churchill London: Thornton Butterworth Ltd., 1931 First edition, second printing Condition: Very Good This is an author’s presentation copy of the scarce hardcover issue of India, inscribed by Winston S. Churchill to James Craig, first Viscount Craigavon and first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, with whom Churchill had worked closely for the previous decade to establish and secure peace between northern and southern Irish states. The inscription, inked in black in five lines on the front free endpaper, reads: “To | Craigavon | from | Winston S. Churchill | 1931. June”. This first edition, second and final impression was issued in May, the same month as the first printing. Given that publication of the first printing took place on 27 May 1931, this copy was inscribed within weeks of publication. This is a remarkable association copy of a book almost never encountered signed, let alone inscribed, and certainly not in this, the scarcest of the first edition binding variants. It also bears the cringe-worthy evidence of previous ownership by a former mayor of Beverly Hills, California, who was clearly more narcissist than bibliophile. Condition Condition is generally very good. The distinctive orange cloth binding is square and tight with only modest overall soiling, slight color shift to the spine, and trivial wear to extremities. The contents show only light spotting, primarily confined to the page edges, with occasional intrusions into the inner margins. What mars this remarkable association copy is its secondary and far lesser association, namely its previous ownership by Hugh W. Darling (1901-1986), a former Mayor of Beverly Hills (elected 1960) and President of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. This copy was acquired directly from the estate of Darling in the late 1980s. In a singular act of ill-advised vandalism, Darling inked “Hugh W. Darling | From H.S.D.” one inch below Churchill’s gift inscription. “H.S.D.” is presumably Darling’s wife, Hazel, from whom Darling ostensibly received the book as a gift. Inked above and to the right of Churchill’s inscription are two dates. “Dec. 25, 1967” is inked in red above “Jan 1, 1968” in blue. Further marks within the text are, mercifully, in pencil rather than in ink. While we have left this underlining intact, it appears erasable. Underling appears in blue or red colored pencil on pages 10, 11, 23, 46, 47, 50, 60, 62, 65-68, 72, 85, 104, 112, 115, 120, 124, 126, and 138. One plausible explanation is that the 1967 and 1968 dates written in red and blue ink on the upper right of the front free endpaper denote when this underlining was done. However, we note that the underlining is in pencil while the dates are inked and that colored pencils were commercially available before this presentation copy was inscribed by Churchill for James Craig. Images of all signed pages can be supplied upon request. Certainly, this is a par excellence example of magnificent book marred by a doltish philistine of a previous owner. Nonetheless, it remains a remarkable association copy of a book almost never seen signed, let alone inscribed. The Association James Craig, (1871-1940), first Viscount Craigavon, served as first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1921 until his death in 1940. This association inscription is splendidly charged with irony. Churchill vigorously opposed Indian independence on the grounds that it would unleash the destructive potential of religious strife, lead to bitter partition and disputed borders, and unleash sectarian violence. Churchill came to support Irish Home Rule – which entailed both a bitter partition and fueled the ensuing better part of a century of sectarian violence and territorial disputes. James Craig was a vehement opponent of Irish independence, though he became the first Prime Minister for Northern Ireland and worked - closely with Churchill - to ensure the viability and perpetuation of a self-governing Northern Ireland. Churchill's father, Lord Randolph, had vigorously supported Ulster Unionists like Craig. Over time, Winston came to support Home Rule, and by the eve of the First World War was a strong advocate. The Home Rule crisis of 1912-1914 was sidelined by the outbreak of World War I. Nonetheless, Churchill ultimately introduced the Irish Free State Bill, which won passage in 1922. During the 1920s, in successive Cabinet positions in both Liberal and Conservative Governments, Churchill worked closely with Craig to pursue peace and political stability within and between northern and southern Irish states. Born in Dublin to a wealthy distiller, Craig, like Churchill, served in the South African War (1899-1902). Also like Churchill, Craig was taken prisoner, but where Churchill famously escaped, Craig was released by the Boers because of a perforated eardrum. “In appearance Craig was a large, strong-featured, red-faced man, easily open to caricature as a typical straight-talking Ulsterman or, alternatively, the bull-necked and inflexible Ulster Unionist.” (ODNB) Craig was a Unionist MP from 1906-21 and a leading opponent of Home Rule before 1914. As Home Rule was debated prior to the First World War, “he and his fellow Unionists prepared to resist home rule by force of arms” and he declared the Liberal Government, of which Churchill was a Cabinet member, as a “caucus, led by rebels.” (Buckland, Craig, p.32) Churchill declared Craig’s position in 1914 as “coercion for four-fifths of Ireland”. (Gilbert, Vol. II, p.489). But Craig was also a shrewd pragmatist, and when the outbreak of the First World War sidelined the Irish question, Craig placed the Ulster Volunteer Force (which became the 36th Ulster division) at the disposal of the British government. He was created Baronet in 1918 and worked in the British Government’s Ministry of Pensions (1919-1920) and Admiralty (1920-21) before becoming the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (under the Government of Ireland Act) in June 1921. He would remain Prime Minister for nearly two decades until his death in 1940. Craig was created Viscount Craigavon of Stormont in 1927. (Hence Churchill’s inscription to “Craigavon” in this copy of India in 1931.) Craig’s long and fraught premiership was defined by efforts to establish the political and financial integrity of Northern Ireland. This task was defined by the violent rifts between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, and by the need to balance Northern Ireland’s simultaneous dependence upon, and resentment of, the British government. “Craig’s whole career can be regarded as “fashioned in opposition to the claims of Irish nationalism” and it can be said that “He was able to carry the British government with him in important respects because it did not want… the responsibility of governing Northern Ireland directly on British shoulders.” (ODNB) Craig was not without sympathy for nationalist aspirations or his own Catholic minority, albeit bounded by the confines of his character and convictions and the implacable perspectives of his people. In the early 1920s, Churchill and Craig worked both together and, occasionally, at odds, during the establishment and early conflict between the Irish states. In 1922, in an attempt to broker peace between Northern and Southern Ireland Churchill brought Craig and Michael Collins together, a meeting which took place in Churchill’s own room at the Colonial Office on January 21. Seven years later, in The World Crisis, Churchill recalled: “They both glowered magnificently, but after a short, commonplace talk I slipped away upon some excuse and left them together. What these two Irishmen, separated by such gulfs of religion, sentiment, and conduct, said to each other I cannot tell. But it took a long time, and, as I did not wish to disturb them, mutton chops, etc., were tactfully introduced about one o’clock. At four o’clock the Private Secretary reported signs of movement on the All-Ireland front and I ventured to look in. They were to help each other in every way; they were to settle outstanding points by personal discussion; they were to stand together within the limits agreed against all disturbers of the peace. We three then joined in the best of all pledges, to wit, ‘To try to make things work.’” (Gilbert, Vol. IV, p.686) The resulting statement began: “Peace is to-day declared.” Churchill countersigned it on behalf of the British Government, but in spite of these efforts the “peace” proved transitory” (Bromage, Churchill and Ireland, p.77) Craig would meet again with Collins in Churchill’s office and under his aegis in March, which resulted in the signing of a widely hailed agreement between North and South, paving the way for the Irish Free State Bill to become law on March 31, 1922. Churchill had played a major part in introducing it to the House of Commons, in guiding its passage, and in beating down the reiterated hostility of an influential group of Conservatives and Unionists.” (Gilbert, Vol. IV, p.702) But both the conflict and Churchill’s work with Craig were far from over. On 4 December 1925, after Churchill (now Chancellor of the Exchequer) presided over three days of “intense and difficult negotiations with the Northern and Southern leaders” on both boundary and debt questions. Craig wrote to Churchill: “I feel it impossible to leave for Ulster without first thanking you most sincerely for the big part you have successfully played in bringing about a settlement”. (Gilbert, Vol. V, p.138) Much changed for both men between the pre-WWI Home Rule debates and the mid-1920s. When Churchill traveled with his wife to Belfast in 1912 to give a speech in favor of Irish Home Rule, "A hostile crowd of nearly 10,000 greeted them outside the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast, where they were staying." Ultimately, the credible threat of violence barred Churchill from speaking in Ulster Hall - the very same hall where his father famously opposed Home Rule in 1886, declaring "Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right." When Churchill did speak – from the Celtic Park Football Ground rather than in Ulster Hall – he acknowledged that “No one underrates the difficulties…” But, invoking the Boer War experience he shared with Craig, Churchill said: "We have made friends with our enemies - can we not make friends with our comrades too?" Fourteen years later, in March 1926, Churchill finally spoke in Ulster Hall. This time, Churchill and his wife were official guests of Prime Minister Craig and Churchill was awarded an honorary degree from Queen’s University. (Bromage, Churchil and Ireland, p.108) In the ensuring years of leadership, both men continued to suffer tremendous pressures and failed ambitions – Craig’s inherent to leadership of a politically and territorially tenuous Northern Ireland, Churchill’s inherent to convictions that ran contrary to those of his Party and public sentiment. Perhaps these challenges engendered mutual sympathies. For Christmas in 1938, after the disastrous Munich Agreement and at the height of Churchill’s rift with Chamberlain and his own Conservative Party, Craig sent Churchill an engraved silver cup. Churchill wrote to Craig on 24 December: “Coming as it does at this time of trouble and misunderstanding in which I feel much alone, tho’ constant, it is grateful to me beyond words... you are one of the few who have it in their power to bestow judgments which I respect."” The gift was more than just a cup. Two weeks later Churchill wrote to his wife: “I think it very beautiful in design. It is quite small and a goblet shape, according to an old Gaelic model, and has been made especially with three supporters, a sword, a brush and a pen. All round are quotations from my father, from me and one from Randolph, about Ulster. I wish some of these dirty Tory hacks, who would like to drive me out of the Party, could see this trophy.” (Gilbert, Vol. V, p.1029) Craig continued to support Churchill. On 4 July 1939 (a date with still other complex post-colonial overtones), even as Chamberlain remained determined to keep Churchill out of the Government, Craigavon wrote to Churchill: “I earnestly hope we will not have long to wait till the Country has your services at its full disposal.” In both April 1939 and May 1940, Craig called for conscription to be applied in Northern Ireland. Fearing a nationalist backlash, the British government refused. Lord Craigavon died in office on 24 November 1940, six months after Churchill became wartime Prime Minister. Edition India is a collection of 10 speeches made by Churchill as part of his campaign against the India Bill, over which he broke with his party’s leadership. Though his cause was lost, these speeches are considered to contain some of the finest examples of Churchill's rhetorical brilliance. As a young man, Churchill spent formative time in the late19th century in the closing years of Queen Victoria’s reign as a cavalry officer, fighting on the northwest Indian frontier, about which he would write his first published book. Unsurprisingly, he did not adopt an early progressive attitude toward relinquishing control over the crown jewel of Britain's colonial empire. Nonetheless, it is instructive to remember that many of Churchill's dire warnings about Indian independence proved prophetic. Churchill had warned that too swift a British withdrawal from India would lead to bloody civil war and sectarian strife between Hindus and Muslims, Hindu domination, and destabilizing political balkanization of the subcontinent. All these predictions came to pass and, to a considerable extent, persist today. The first edition is most commonly found in orange paper wraps. A much rarer version of the first edition was issued in a cased (hardcover) binding, featuring a bright orange coarse cloth. Churchill’s bibliographer, Ronald I. Cohen, states that: “Since cased copies were, in principle, destined for library use rather than general public consumption, I expect that copies in the original cloth binding represented the number which the publisher thought would be bought institutionally.” A second printing of the first edition was issued in the same month as the first printing. It is identical to the first printing apart from notation of the second printing on the title page verso. According to Churchill bibliographer Ronald Cohen: "Few cased copies of the second printing are known… They would be the result of the need to supply more copies of the library-edition format than the remaining number of first-printing copies available." This inscribed presentation copy is one of those very few - a hardcover first edition, second printing. Reference: Cohen A92.1.d, Woods/ICS A38(a.2), Langworth p.150 Ref #: 004418 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. 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Price: 7800 USD

Location: San Diego, California

End Time: 2025-01-03T02:44:04.000Z

Shipping Cost: 20 USD