THE DOWNING STREET YEARS by Thatcher, Margaret ; [SIGNED] ; Rowland Evans Jr - 1993

New York: Harper Collins. Very Good+ in Near Fine dust jacket. 1993. First Edition; First Printing. Hard Cover. Autograph; xiv, 914 pages; Former owner's signature on ffep - "Rowland Evans Jr. / Nov. '93" Inscribed and SIGNED by the author on half-title "To Rowland Evans / with warm good wishes / Margaret Thatcher" Rowland Evans' notes on rear free endpaper, otherwise contents clean and secure in original cloth binding in very nice dustjacket. The first volume of Thatcher's memoirs covering her premiership of 1979 - 1990 - the formation of her goals in the early 1980s, the Falklands, The General Election victories of 1983 and 1987 and the eventually the circumstances of her fall from political power. The book is illustrated throughout with photographs. PROVENANCE: Rowland Evans was a provocative newspaper columnist, commentator and author who antagonized liberal politicians and championed conservative causes. He left Yale and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 during World War II and was discharged in 1944 because of malaria. In 1963, Mr. Evans and Mr. Novak began writing ''Inside Report,'' an insider's view of politics that was published four times a week until Mr. Evans retired in 1993. Mr. Evans and Robert Novak began their work as columnists in the early 1960's, a time when newspaper columnists wielded outsize influence in national politics. The pair pioneered in transferring that influence to the medium of cable television with the political discussion program ''Evans & Novak'' -- carried on CNN from that cable network's beginning. Rowland Evans and his wife Kay (Katherine Winton Evans), also a respected writer and editor, were mainstays on the Washington social scene, hosting many memorable gatherings in their handsome Georgetown house -- to which flocked influential and remarkable people drawn from journalism, politics and general society over the decades from the 1960s to the 2000s. Both Evans and Novak became more predictably conservative over the years, particularly during the Reagan years. Reportedly, both columnists voted for JFK in 1960 and for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Evans earned a place on Richard Nixon's infamous "Enemies List." Novak reported that Evans had JFK as a guest for the first dinner party the latter attended as President Elect. Kay and Rowland Evans has a particularly close friendship with Robert F. Kennedy, his wife Ethel and their family. ; Signed by Author .