A Roving Commission: My Early Life by Churchill, Winston S - 1930

Charles Scribner's Sons. Used - Good. Good condition. No Dust Jacket (Winston Churchill, Prime Ministers, Autobiography) A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains.

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1930. Spine and top1/2" of rear cover sunned. Front cover and spine lettered in gilt. Title-page with light foxing at periphery. Frontispiece portraity of Jenny Jerome, Sir Winston's mother. This is the American edition of "Mt Early Life". Collated complete with 28 illustrations and maps. A very clean copy through the text. 377pp. Woods A37(b). . First American Edition. Red Cloth. Minor Wear and Soining/No Dust Jacket. Medium Crown Octavo.

NY: Charles Scribners Sons, 1940. Second American Edition (Second Printing) (Cohen A91.5.b) (Woods A37c). Hardcover (with Dust Jacket). Very Good. 8vo. This is a very good Second Printing copy of the wartime Second American Edition in an unclipped dust jacket that is in very good condition. The contents are fine, the boards a bit roughed and shelfworn.

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1941.

Charles Scribner's Sons. Red cloth with gilt titles. . Near Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. 1930.

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940. Second U.S. issue, second printing. Hardcover. This is Winston Churchill's extremely popular autobiography, covering the years from his birth in 1874 to his first few years in Parliament. This wartime U.S. edition was published the same year Churchill became wartime Prime Minister and includes a noteworthy new introduction. This second American issue was printed from first edition plates (and is thus technically "second issue" rather than "second edition"). Uncommon in the original dust jacket, it is also of bibliographic note. A new and supportive introduction dated 14 October 1939 was provided by the American broadcast and print journalist Dorothy Thompson, focusing on Churchill himself rather than the book. When the first printing was published in November 1939, Churchill had just been terribly vindicated by the outbreak of the Second World War and re-joined the British Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty. By the time this second printing was… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,, 1930. First US edition, first printing, of Churchill's only volume of sustained autobiography, retitled from its British publication under My Early Life earlier that month, and covering his formative years from his birth in 1874 until his election as MP for Oldham in 1900. This copy is from the collection of Churchill's bibliographer Ronald Cohen. Among his most widely read works, it provides a highly entertaining account of his childhood, schooldays at Harrow, military training at Sandhurst, experiences as a war correspondent in Cuba, service attached to the Malakand Field Force on the North-West Frontier Province of India, charging with the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, and as a POW in South Africa during the Boer War. Overall, it gives a "witty and elegiac account of his youth shot through with regret at the decline of the social and imperial order in which he had grown up" (ODNB). Provenance: Ronald Cohen, with his ownership inscription in pencil on the front free… Read More

New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1930. First American Edition (Third Printing) (Cohen A91.2.c)(Woods A37b). Hardcover (with Dust Jacket). Very Good. 16mo (378 pages, photo frontis, maps, illustrated. With Scribner “A” on copyright page.). This is a very good copy of the Third Printing of the First American edition in the rare dust jacket, which is price-clipped and spine-faded, as per usual, but most attractive overall, quite bright and fresh on the front and rear faces, and thoroughly intact across the spine, with just a few closed tears at the head and tail. The book itself is virtually mint, inside and out, with a tiny vintage bookshop plate on the rear pastedown.

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1930. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. This is a the U.S. first edition, first printing of Churchill's extremely popular autobiography, covering the years from his birth in 1874 to his first few years in Parliament. This is a very good copy in the scarce first printing dust jacket. Published in England as My Early Life, this is one of the few Churchill first editions for which the U.S. edition bears a different title than the British. Interestingly, A Roving Commission was the title proposed by Churchill himself and favored by his American publisher. One can hardly ask for more adventurous content. These were momentous and formative years for Churchill, including his time as a war correspondent and cavalry officer in theatres as varied as Cuba, northwest India, and sub-Saharan and southern Africa. This time contained a wide range of experiences in Churchill’s life. Not only was he developing as an author, publishing his first books, and making his… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1930. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. This is the U.S. first edition, first printing of Churchill's extremely popular autobiography, covering the years from his birth in 1874 to his first few years in Parliament. This is a very good copy in the scarce first printing dust jacket, previously belonging to the personal library of Churchill's bibliographer, Ronald Cohen. The book sold very well at the time and, enduringly popular, has seen a great many editions since, many of them collectible in their own right. Of course, a premium attaches to first editions, both British and U.S. Jacketed copies of the U.S. first edition are scarce. Even decent unjacketed copies are unusual. The red-orange cloth binding proved highly susceptible to fading and soiling and the thin, fragile dust jacket proved highly vulnerable to wear and severe fading of the orange color, particularly on the jacket spine. This copy is first printing, confirmed by the Scribner’s “A” on the… Read More