Description

This is a First American Edition Presentation set, without dust jackets, in exceptionally fine condition. Ink inscriptions on notepaper tipped into Volume I and Volume VI, respectively, read: “To Otto Pickhardt from Winston S. Churchill with kindest regards Oct. 19, 1933” and “To Dr. Pickhardt from Winston S. Churchill, November 1938.”

OTTO PICKHARDT was the reknowned New York City surgeon who examined Churchill at Lenox Hill Hospital on the night in December (13) 1931 that Churchill was struck by a car on Fifth Avenue while searching for Bernard Baruch’s apartment building. Pickhardt subsequently became a friend and frequent correspondent. “Marlborough comes out in the U.S. on November 10,” Churchill wrote to Bernard Baruch on 15 October 1933. “I have put down a short list of names which occur to me to whom I should like to send copies.” This list included W.R. Hearst, Charles Schwab, Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Dr. O.C. Pickhardt. Since Churchill was not in the U.S.when these books were published, his personal inscriptions were delivered to Scribners in advance and tipped into the books for presentation.

Volumes I and VI each also contain handsome printed cards: WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF THE AUTHOR.