“ONE OF THE BEST POLITICAL BIOGRAPHIES IN ENGLISH:” LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL

CHURCHILL, Winston. Lord Randolph Churchill. New York: Macmillan, 1906. Two volumes. Octavo, original burgundy cloth, top edges gilt, uncut. $1400.

First American edition of Churchill’s distinguished biography of his father, with two photographic frontispiece portraits of Lord Randolph.

"In My Early Life, Winston joked about his father's low opinion of him… Beneath Winston's tremendous stature as a world leader, his belligerence, his confidence, there ran this dark, poignant thread, of a son working vainly to win his father's approval" (Rubin, 106, 108). "Outside Parliament, Churchill devoted much of his time during 1904 and 1905 to compiling a biography of Lord Randolph. He was motivated in part by a desire for an intimate knowledge of his father that had been denied him during Lord Randolph's lifetime… When the book emerged in 1906, it was widely hailed as one of the best political biographies in English and its prose style is still greatly admired today… Contemporary readers were struck by the frankness and openness of the account, contrasting favorably with the pious acts of homage served up as biography by other sons of famous fathers. It was, after all, a study in failure rather than success. The writing of the biography marked the point at which Churchill at last outgrew his father's memory" (Grant, 47). Illustrated with numerous full-page plates and manuscript facsimiles. Issued simultaneously with the English edition. Dust jackets for the American edition are "presumed but none known" (Cohen A17.2). Publisher's four-page advertising leaflet laid in. Langworth, 68-72. See Woods A8(a). Bookplate.

Interiors clean, spines gently toned. Near-fine in the original cloth.