June 1, 2015

Finest Hour 107, Summer 2000

Page 38

By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH


People often ask my partner, Mark Weber, or me what it costs to own a complete set of Winston Churchill’s books. The answer is: between $1500/£1000 and well over $100,000/£67,000, depending on the varieties, editions and conditions desired. Then, if you can find them, add another $100,000 for first editions of the two rare, probable vanity press productions, Mr. Brodrick’s Army and For Free Trade. You might have to add even more; the last Brodrick sale I know of was in 1999 for $75,000/£50,000. And this is for books not inscribed by our author.

But “Never Despair!” Ten years ago I set out to acquire a full set of Churchill’s books for my Maine cottage for as little as possible, accepting scruffy copies and avoiding only paperbacks. I made color photocopies of dust jackets in my home collection to hide the worn covers. This little group cost $1500/£1000 and is adequate if not comprehensive. Space limited me to abridged one-volume editions of The World Crisis, The Second World War and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. Cost and space excluded the Complete Speeches (8 vols.) and Collected Essays (4 vols.). Prices for run-of-the-mill copies haven’t changed much since, so I think you could still put such a collection together for roughly the same price.

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Avoid Leather


It bears mentioning again what Mark and I constantly preach to new enthusiasts: avoid books rebound in leather. A collector once asked me to take his complete Churchill collection on consignment. At great expense over the years, he had rebound each first edition, many of which were fine originals, in full morocco leather. The bindings were beautiful. He was astonished when I said that for a specialist dealing mainly with advanced collectors, these books were virtually unsalable. All I could recommend was that he consign them to an auction house or a big city dealer specializing in fine bindings—and pray a lot.

Leatherbound volumes are marginally more valuable in England than America, and that is the place to sell them. A scruffy first edition with nice clean internals is a candidate for a fine leather binding. Nothing else is. For those who dominate the Churchill collecting field, “original cloth” is what’s wanted— unless of course a book was bound in leather by the publisher, like the 100 limited editions of The Second World War or the signed limited edition of Marlborough. Somebody may be more interested in fancy bindings than I; somebody is certainly paying the staggering prices I see for them occasionally at certain auctions.

If you wish to display rows of Churchill works in fine leather spines, consider having your original editions boxed. My late friend Dalton Newfield, the first Churchill-only bookseller, once sold a collection in which each original volume was handsomely rebound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe in beautiful half oasis morocco boxes, blocked in gilt with raised spine bands. On the shelf they ldoked like rows of fine bindings. Inside each box was a pristine original, usually in its dust jacket. “Boxes,” wrote Newfield, “solve the problem many collectors face by having a book rebound, a process which reduces the value of a book by reducing the percentage of collectors who will buy it. Boxing upgrades the appearance of the book immensely, protects it far more than rebinding, but preserves the original condition of the book and, therefore, the value.”

Set a Goal and Keep It

Recently I helped a customer who wanted more than a budget collection of Churchill but didn’t want to foot the bill for 100% first editions. He had read my article, “The Sordid History of the Collected Works” (FH 57) and decided that the Collected Works were not for him. He wanted trade editions, as many as possible contemporary to Churchill’s time, unsullied by latterday editing (like the Collected Works) and bound in original materials, not cardboard like so many modern books—Churchill’s words as released to the public in the form the public knew them originally.

My client specified a ceiling of $5000, which allowed him to assemble a handsome collection in just six months. Many were first edition lookalikes (“FELAs”): later impressions otherwise identical to the first editions. In a few unavoidable cases, I had to supply modern reprints: the Norton or Cooper version of the Malakand Field Force, for example. My friend ended up $5000 later with a complete collection of Churchill’s books including the very rare Complete Speeches, a set now selling for up to $1000/£600. But he still lacks the 1975 Collected Essays, a spin-off from the “Collected Works,” now scarce. The Essays represent the only collection in volume form of Churchill’s periodical articles, forewords and contributions to other books.

The major compromise this collector had to make was The River War, which has not been in print as a fully unabridged two-volume work since 1900. Unabridged River Wars (even the second and third impressions) are expensive. He settled for a postwar abridged edition at $75.

This problem is soon to be rectified, since The Churchill Center has concluded arrangements for a definitive new edition River War in two-volumes, containing not only the original text, but the various additions Churchill added for the 1902 edition, clear notes explaining what was excised and what was added at that time, and comprehensive footnotes explaining obscure references, like what happened to people, places and things mentioned over the past 100 years. All this work was the product of our academic chairman, James W. Muller, who not only added important documents from the Churchill Archives, but located the original 1899 Angus McNeill illustrations, including one in color that was never published—but will be. Watch for this great new River War in 2001.

In the meantime if you decide how much you wish to spend, and stick to it, you can with perseverance get the library you are after, within reason.

The $5000/£3300 Library

Here’s an example of what a collector who wishes to acquire a nice set of mostly contemporary editions can find, based on realistic modern prices (not usually the prices you see paid at the posh auctions). All are in VG to fine condition unless otherwise noted, but prewar titles will not be in dust jackets. (“FELA” means first edition lookalike; “dj” means dust jacket or dust wrapper.)

Malakand Field Force. No FELAs available. For a modern reprint from the 1990s, fine in dj, figure around $35/£23.

The River War: Unfortunately there is presently no substitute for the original, elaborately bound and illustrated twovolume edition; every edition since has been abridged, the illustrations eliminated and the folding maps replaced by more modest maps. A very good later impression of the original could cost say j $2000/£1200, a postwar abridged edition in dj $75/£50.

Savrola: The best FELA is the second impression of the first edition (New York 1900), which sells for less than half the price of the first. Expect about $350/£230 for a nice one. Otherwise a 1990s reprint, $50/£33.

London to Ladysmith via Pretoria: A decent South African FELA was produced in 1982, a facsimile first with the armoured train cover design on ochre cloth. The original folding maps are found here in the form of endpapers. An excellent alternative to the high-priced first editions; sells for around $125/£83.

Ian Hamilton’s March: The second edition, a FELA published the same year as the first, is the obvious choice here. A good copy might run about $200/£133, but nicely preserved ones cost more.

Mr Brodrick’s Army, For Free Trade, Liberalism and the Social Problem: There are no FELAs for these three rare books. However, one can obtain the entire text in a single volume entided Early Speeches, bound from leftover sheets of the 1974 Collected Works, for $55/£37 from the Churchill Center Book Club (page 24).

Lord Randolph Churchill: The best alternative to the two-volume first edition is the one-volume (unabridged) 1907 edition, which is bound the same way and contains the same material. Another choice is the 1952 Odhams edition, which has an extra appendix. A VG+ 1907 costs around $125/£83. The CC Book Club offers new copies bound from Collected Works sheets for $55/£37.

My African Journey: There are no later impressions or FELAs. This is such a beautiful and inimitable book in its first edition that the collector may want to splurge. Prices range from $150/£100 for a scruffy copy with a decent woodcut cover illustration, to $800/£533 or more for near-fine and yet more for full-fine copies. Alternately, there is a nice small format leather reprint by Heron (1965) at around $50/£33.

The Peoples Rights: Although the text of this work is also contained in the CC Book Club’s combined volume Early Speeches, nice jacketed copies of the 1970-71 London and New York facsimile hardbound reprint are not expensive, and offer the benefit of a new foreword by Cameron Hazlehurst: $80/£53.

The World Crisis: Assuming that the collector at this level wants the original format (five volumes in six books), look for an English FELA, composed of later impressions but bound like the first, containing the same folding maps, illustrations and useful shoulder notes on each page. $400/£267 was the recent price of a typical example. An alternative is the modern Easton Press edition at $260/£173, sometimes out of print at Easton but floating around, and they reprint it frequently. This is a very accurately produced reprint, though bound in rather cheap and flashy red pigskin.

My Early Life: While first editions are rare and expensive, plenty of FELAs exist of both the English and the American edition (A Roving Commission); they are often seen with replica djs produced by me. (Do not be taken in by dealers claiming these jackets are originals; most of them are marked as reprints.) The English edition is larger and probably preferable, despite its lurid fuschia cloth binding. Figure $5O/£33 for a decent FELA.

India: The expense of acquiring the scarce first edition of this uncommon title was solved a decade ago when I published the “first American edition,” which is still available from the CC New Book Service at $25/£17. Its cloth binding replicates the first hardbound edition. Its text is an exact reprint sandwiched between orange wrappers replicating the first softbound edition. Before the first wrapper comes a bibliographic note and a long, erudite foreword by Professor Manfred Weidhorn.

Thoughts and Adventures: While only one impression of the American first edition (Amid These Storms) was produced, there are FELAs of the English Thoughts and Adventures, though the supply of these has diminished. With patience, you ought to be able to find a nice copy for as little as $50/£33, though don’t hold me to that price! Most FELAs will be from the Keystone Library, a cut-price series produced by the original publisher.

Marlborough: Jacketed firsts of Churchill’s great biography cost $1500/£1000 and up. Fine jacketed FELAs (usually containing later impressions of the first two volumes) sell for more like $700/£500. The latter is a better investment than unjacketed firsts, because the first three volumes faded badly, and without dust jackets they fade to near-white on the spines. Spend the money and get a nice one—this is one of the most aesthetically beautiful of the trade bindings.

Great Contemporaries: Jacketed first editions are selling for upwards of $75O/£5OO or more now, but unjacketed firsts haven’t changed in price for years: $125/£83 will still buy a decent one. Somewhat more money will also purchase, when you can find one, a fine jacketed FELA. The orange and black dj is a colorful addition to any library.

Arms and the Covenant: This is a title which has no FELAs, since only one impression of the first edition was published and even ordinary copies sell for $150/£100 or so. The alternative is the American edition, While England Slept, only around $50/£25 for a VG copy. If you are fortunate enough to find one of the American reprints in its original dust jacket, estimate $125/£83. The first impression in a jacket costs a lot more.

Step by Step: 1936-1939. FELAs of the English first edition, in green cloth, are relatively abundant, and for about $100/£66 you should be able to land a fine example. Half that price will buy the American first edition, bound uniformly with While England Slept.

War Speeches: These seven volumes, one for each year of the war plus the finale Secret Session Speeches, saw huge press runs and remain fairly common. But sets of clean first editions, or reprints in jackets, are worth every bit of $250/£167. If you are lucky enough to encounter one at that price, buy it. An alternative, costing less, is the Purnell 1960s reprint (blue leatherette) of the postwar three-volume “Definitive Edition,” entitled The War Speeches ofWinston S. Churchill.

The Second World War: This six-volume work had the highest press run of all Churchill’s books and is in ready supply, book club editions selling for as little as $1 each. Although fine jacketed first editions have been rapidly escalating in price, they are more often seen than trade reprints. The British edition is preferred since it contains all of Churchill’s galley corrections. Estimate $350/£233 for a reasonably clean jacketed set.

Painting as a Pastime: First editions both American and English are available, running just short of $100/£67 in fine jacketed condition. The American is the more attractive production, and more apt to be found in fine condition.

Postwar Speeches: Rarely offered as a set, the five volumes of post-1945 speeches include The Sinews of Peace, Europe Unite, In the Balance, Stemming the Tide and The Unwritten Alliance. The last three are now scarce, and the last, which was published only in England, borders on rare. In jacketed condition, perhaps not perfect but very attractive, a set of the five might run you $700/£466.

History of the English-Speaking Peoples: Among four-volume first editions, the English is aesthetically by far the most desirable. Ultra-fine jacketed sets can run up to $500/£333, but by shopping around you’ll eventually find a very nice looking set with minor or no flaws for say $300/£200, perhaps less if luck holds.

Posthumous Works: Young Winston’s Wars (1974) publishes Churchill’s early war despatches; If I Lived My Life Again (1974), generally considered a Churchill work, is a collection of essays and excerpts. The Dream (1987) and The Chartwell Bulletins (1989) were published by ICS and can be obtained from Churchill Stores (address page 2) for $30/£20. Allowing about $130/£87, you should be able to acquire fine copies of all four of these interesting titles.

Where does that leave us? Going the cheaper route, the above titles add up to $4300/£2870, just about what they cost my friendly customer. If you decide there are no substitutes for a two-volume edition of The River War and a first edition of My African journey, the total becomes $6675/£4450. Either way, the result is a very nice collection of Churchill’s books, most of them first editions or at least FELAs—except for the two hard-to-find multi-volume posthumous works, the Complete Speeches and Collected Essays. These might add $1800/£1200 to your outlay.

Considering that the same amount of money will barely buy a decent used car—and that unlike the car the books will entertain for years while appreciating in value—you may conclude that a nice collection of Churchill is still a bargain.


The author ([email protected]) has been a bookseller specializing in Churchill since 1982. This is a sequel to “A Churchill Library on a Budget,” which appeared in FH 42 in 1984. “Woods Corner” is named for the first Churchill bibliographer, the late Fred Woods.

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