ISLAND LIFE

Description

This very good First English edition copy was formerly owned by Winston Churchill’s younger brother, Jack Spencer-Churchill, whose bookplate is affixed to the front free endpaper. Subtitled,“The Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras, including a Revision and Attempted Solution of the Problem of Geological Climates,” the book is bound in 3/4-brown morocco leather, with marbled boards and endpapers, gilt borders and a spine ornately gilt lettered in six compartments with raised bands. The leather is scratched and rubbed at the corners and along the spine, with some chipping to the leather and the marbelized paper but the boards are still very attractive. The binding is tight. The interior pages are remarkably well-preserved with some age-toning but no foxing. A few light pencil markings have been retained for their associative value; else fine. JOHN STRANGE SPENCER-CHURCHILL (always known as Jack) was the second son of Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill, and the younger brother, by just over five years, of Winston. After a successful school career at Harrow, it was Jack Churchill’s dearest wish to follow his adored older brother into military service but the family’s ruined financial state, in the wake of Randolph Churchill’s passing, caused Jennie Churchill to press her youngest son into the service of Sir Ernest Cassell, there to “make millions” as a stockbroker. Jack and Winston Churchill remained devoted to one another until Jack’s passing in 1947.