Abdication

by Inglis, Brian

First edition

[30 Day Return Guarantee] Price: $26.55

Book Description

New York:: The MacMillan Company,, 1966.. First edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. STATED FIRST PRINTING. 433 page with Index plus 16 pages black and white photos. The book is NEAR FINE with owner's inscription on front fly page. The dust jacket is NEAR FINE with some minor shelfwear. Comes with BRODART jacket cover. JMVintage specializes in books, magazines, and treasures related to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor..and other curious people. Dust jacket reads: At ten o'clock in the morning on October 20, 1936, Prime Minister Baldwin called on King Edward VIII and did something quite out of character for this epitome of the correct Englishman-he asked for a drink of whiskey. The cause of his anxiety were the newspaper stories that Mrs. Ernest Simpson was divorcing Mr. Simpson-which could foreseeably have a disastrous effect on the institution of monarchy. Thus begins the first full account of the events leading up to the abdication and of the people involved in one of the most grueling crises in British history. It is a masterly analysis of the personalities of many notable men, chief among them Edward himself. In the 1920s, as Prince of Wales, Edward was the best-known international personality of his time. Never had a prince established himself so firmly in the hearts of people allover the world in his wide travels. But, returned to England, in the 1930s some of the gloss was beginning to wear off his existence. He was not close to his family, and he found the formality of the court stifling. He was bored and restive-and then he fell in love with the fascinating lady from Baltimore and ran headlong into the profoundest forces of British society-the government, the Church, the press, the Establishment in general. Always transplanted before he had put down roots, Edward had few friends, and those he had, especially Lord Rothermere's son, with his proposal for a morganatic marriage, advised him badly. He could have turned to the two men who would have helped him most, Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, but he waited until it was too late. He had many formidable adversaries, Baldwin heading the list, yet actually Baldwin did not get rid of the King-he simply facilitated the process by which the King made his own departure inevitable. Finally, he had but three choices: give up the idea of marriage, to Wallis, marry her in defiance of his ministers, or abdicate. There is no more dramatic story in modern history than this sad and tangled affair, and Inglis tells it brilliantly, drawing on every available source. He has written a superb account not just of one man's fateful love but of Britain, and of British statesmanship, during some discouraging years of troubles at home, with the ominous clouds of war hovering overhead.

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