FOR FREE TRADE
-Facsimile Reprint-
1977
First American Edition ("Library" Binding)
Churchilliana Co. [Sacramento, CA]
Biblio: (Cohen A18.2.b) (Woods A9)
8vo (136 pages [i-iv] v-ix [x-xii] xiii-xv [xvi] 1-118 [119-120])
Hardcover [Reddish-brown cloth]
Item Number: 19745
$145.00
Collector's Guide
For Free Trade has always been, in tandem with Mr. Brodrick’s Army, the holy grail of Churchill book collecting. A small, 136-page, softcover collection of nine speeches on the title subject delivered by Winston Churchill as a 31-year-old MP for Manchester, For Free Trade 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, including Churchill’s earlier 1903 speech compendium, the aforementioned Mr. Brodrick’s Army. Identical in format to Brodrick and just as precious, For Free Trade was produced in very small numbers, bound in unprepossessing red printed wraps that did not age well. The surviving handful of copies (as few as 15-20 accounted for) today constitute the stuff of collectors’ dreams.
Description
This 1977 facsimile reprint actually constituted the First American edition of this rare work. Here is a virtually mint copy, as issued in the so-called “Library” binding of reddish-brown cloth, unjacketed, with replicas of the original edition’s red card covers bound in.
A very handsome piece of work. A virtually mint copy.