MARLBOROUGH: His Life and Times
-First American Edition Presentation Set in Uniform Dust Jackets and Rare Slipcase-
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: 212432
$4,500.00
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 virtually mint First American edition set wrapped in the final-state, uniform blue and gold dust jackets and preserved in the very rarely seen publisher’s green card slipcase, which does show its age.
(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. (See Item #14431.) 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 dust jackets here are all unclipped and in extraordinarily bright and fresh condition, as are the books, inside and out. The slipcase is shelfworn, with separation beginning at the corners, but intact and in very good overall condition.
Laid-into Volume I is a publisher’s printed presentation slip:
“WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF THE AUTHOR.”
Quite unique thus.