Mr. Brodrick's Army.

London: Arthur L. Humphreys,, 1903. Legendarily rare A black tulip of the Churchill canon, surviving in only a handful of copies, long recognized by even the most dedicated Churchill collectors as "virtually impossible to acquire" (Langworth, p. 65). This is the second and only realistically obtainable edition. Mr. Brodrick's Army begins with Churchill's Commons speech on the New Army Scheme of 13 May 1901, his first major set-piece address. "I took six weeks to prepare this speech, and learnt it so thoroughly off by heart that it hardly mattered where I began it or how I turned it". This volume gathers together his interventions in opposition to St John Brodrick's plans for increased military spending - "the very subject that had toppled his father" (Woods, p. 65). The first edition was minutely printed in simple self-wrappers; the second was printed with wide margins, bound in bright wrappers, and is altogether rather handsome. "Humphreys initially chose a cheaper production format in order to avoid the costs associated with the far more attractive second-edition format and that, when it became clear that sufficient demand existed for the work, he determined to produce it in a more appealing format which would justify the higher price, render the work more marketable and reduce the risk of loss" (Cohen). No further edition was published. Only three copies of the first edition are known, all in institutions: Trinity College, Toronto; Churchill College, Cambridge; and the collection of the Marquess of Bath at Longleat. This second edition is the only edition that can be traced in commerce, yet very seldomly - in the last thirty years, we know of only three copies appearing at auction, of which only one retained its original wrappers. Included is a contemporary leaflet, produced by the Liberal Party publication department, opposing Brodrick's scheme: "The Abandoned Army Corps. A Study in 'How Not to Do It'". Provenance: the collection of Steve Forbes. Octavo. Original red wrappers lettered in black, neatly rebacked. Housed in custom red half morocco solander box. Wrappers lightly rubbed, rear wrapper with a few peripheral tiny chips, one spot of offset from the wrappers to title page, very light foxing at extremities, contents otherwise clean, a few leaves towards the rear opened a little roughly. Aside from the neat reback, the copy is without the extensive repairs which are generally seen in the few remaining examples in original wrappers. A very good copy. Cohen A10.2; Woods A6(b). Richard M. Langworth, A Connoisseur's Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill, 1998; Frederick Woods, Artillery of Words: The Writings of Sir Winston Churchill, 1992.