MARLBOROUGH: His Life and Times
-First American Edition Set in Correct First-State Dust Jackets-
1933-38
First American Edition Set
Charles Scribners Sons [New York]
Biblio: (Cohen A97.4[I-VI].a (Woods A40b)
8vo (2,500+ pages, illustrated with portraits,maps, plans.)
Hardcover in Dust Jacket [Green cloth]
Item Number: 14431
$3,500.00
Collector's Guide
Marlborough is Winston Churchill’s majestic biography of John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough; soldier, statesmen, hard-headed Churchillian ancestor. Initially published in England as a lush four-volume set and then as a somewhat less deluxe six-volume set in America, it was subsequently issued in an unabridged two-volume edition and a single-volume abridgment.
Description
This is a very good First American edition set, all volumes in their rare, correct FIRST-STATE, unclipped dust jackets, as issued, all unclipped, in the original printed slipcases.[/p]Volumes I and II are in white dust jackets printed green and are slipcased as a set, as are Volumes III and IV. Volume V is in its unique off-white dust jacket printed red and black. Volume VI is in the familiar blue and gold dust jacket that made its first appearance here, before Scribner rewrapped the entire set in this jacket design uniformly.
With apologies for the complicated lineage: Scribners published in the U.S. the English Volume I divided into two books (designated Volumes I & II) and slipcased as a set. Scribners did the same with the English Volume II (designated Volumes III & IV as a set). All four books were issued in plain white dust jackets, printed in green. Scribners then published in the U.S. the English Volumes III and IV as Volumes V and VI, respectively, Volume V in a red and white dust jacket, Volume VI in a blue and gold dust jacket. Upon issuing the final volume (VI), Scribners then rewrapped the set uniformly in the final-blue and gold jacket and boxed the six together in a simple green card slipcase with a printed top-label.
The white jackets here are all clean on their faces and intact. Volumes I and II have darkened with age and are faintly edge-chipped at the spine heads, with fractional loss of approximately one-inch along the lower spine of Volume II. They are otherwise in very good condition. The jackets of Volumes III and IV are clean and very bright but do have fractional losses at the spine heads that have been filled out with archival paper backing to each verso, as well as a triangular closed tear on the rear face of Volume III and a faint hint of scattered foxing to Volume IV. They are otherwise quit fine.
Both slipcases are impressively bright, if very lightly scuffed and separating just a bit along the edges. All books are virtually mint.