THE PEOPLE’S RIGHTS
-First English Hardcover Edition-
1910
First English Hardcover ["Cased"] Edition (1 of 100 copies)
Hodder & Stoughton [London]
Biblio: (Cohen A31.1.b) (Woods A16aa)
16mo (152 pages)
Hardcover [Deep red cloth]
Item Number: 212493
To view price please create an account or login
Collector's Guide
The People’s Rights collects six Churchill speeches from the 1910 General Election rebuking the Tories for their rejection of “The People’s Budget.” Originally published in simultaneous hard and softcover editions, the book is now rarely encountered in either format. In fact, this is probably the third rarest Churchill book after Mr. Brodrick’s Army and For Free Trade. It was reprinted twice in the 1970s, though even these reprints are scarce today.
Description
This is an extravagantly rare copy of the first hardcover edition in extremely fine condition. This hardcover (“cased”) edition “consisted of only 100 copies, bound on 20 December 1909, two weeks before the softcover edition was bound,” according to bibliographer Ronald Cohen. “It is, at least, very clear,” writes Cohen, “that only a few such copies were offered for sale and that they are extremely scarce.”
The book did not generally age especially well but this is a first-rate example of the Second State, with the numeral on page 71 corrected (and an Appendix with the Index at rear). The cloth is a rich, deep red, the gilt lettering is bright on the front face, the spine is only nominally faded, the binding is tight and the boards clean, the gilt topstain fresh and the pages faintly browned, as per usual. The front cover has what may be a very faint cup stain, the rear cover corners are slightly crunched and there is a faint black mark on the spine. There is a vintage bookplate on the front pastedown. Else fine.