This Item Has Been Sold
MR. BRODRICK’S ARMY
-The Rare English Edition-
1903
Second English Edition
Arthur L. Humphreys [London]
Biblio: (Cohen 10.2) (Woods A6c)
8vo (104 pages)
Softcover [Red printed wraps]
Item Number: 17082
Collector's Guide
Mr. Brodrick’s Army is the holy grail of Churchill book collecting. A 104-page softcover collection of six Parliamentary speeches delivered by the then-28-year-old MP opposing plans for the expansion of England’s peacetime army, Brodrick was published by Arthur L. Humphreys, General Manager of Hatchard’s, the renowned London bookshop that still stands at number 187 Piccadilly. Hatchard’s had a long history even then as a publisher of pamphlets, both political and otherwise. Humphreys and Hatchard’s would go on to issue Churchill’s 1905 speech compendium, For Free Trade, in an identical format to Brodrick, bound in unprepossessing printed red wraps that did not age well. The surviving handful of copies (fewer than 20 accounted for) today constitute the stuff of collectors’ dreams.
Description
According to Churchill bibliographers, a First Edition was issued without the red card covers. Only three copies are known to exist.
This Second Edition copy has been rebound with a custom-made facsimile of the original printed red card wrappers. There is foxing to the first six pages (including the title-page and the Dedication leaf) and the last five pages only.
A very good, clean copy, otherwise, of Churchill’s rarest work, here preserved in a platform chemise and half morocco slipcase.