Thoughts and Adventures

London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1943. Macmillan issue, third and final printing. Hardcover. This is a wartime reprint of Winston Churchill’s collection of 23 engaging essays on an incredibly wide variety of subjects. Thoughts and Adventures has been called "The broadest range of Churchill's thought between two hard covers" and reflects the two qualities that so characterize Churchill's life - a remarkable breadth of both mind and life experience.

Thoughts and Adventures was first published in 1932 by Thornton Butterworth Limited. This was at the beginning of a decade the author spent out of power and out of favor, frequently at odds with both his Government and prevailing public sentiment. But in 1940 Churchill became wartime Prime Minister. And also in 1940, Thornton Butterworth went under and a different publisher, Macmillan, acquired the rights to several of Churchill’s books. Hence this wartime reprint by Macmillan using modified first edition plates.

This Macmillan issue was a simple but handsome production, in dark blue cloth with gilt spine print. There were three Macmillan printings, two in 1942 and one in 1943. This is the third and final Macmillan printing of 1943.

Condition is good plus in a very good dust jacket. The blue cloth binding is tight and bright with vivid gilt spine print and only light shelf wear confined to the spine ends and bottom edges. Nonetheless, the binding has a definite forward lean. The contents are bright, spotting substantially confined to the prelims and page edges. We find no previous owner names. The dust jacket is unclipped, retaining the original lower front flap price, and substantially complete, with only fractional loss to the spine ends and flap fold corners. The jacket shows mild spine toning with a stray ink mark below the author’s name. The red spine title print remains clearly legible. The dust jacket is protected beneath a removable, clear, archival cover.

An original blurb for Thoughts and Adventures encapsulates – as far as is possible – the wide range of the chapters within: “These true stories concern such things as the tides that make a politician change his mind; the domination of chance in human lives; the cartoonists who mocked Churchill; the chances and events that occurred while he was in the trenches; phases of the war seen from intimate participation with the high commands; flying experiences in 1912; the Irish; the future; and contemporary change." In a 31 May 1932 letter to his publisher about the book, Churchill characterized it thus: "...although there is no one single theme, it has some of the best things in it I have ever written."

Reference: Cohen A95.4.c, Woods/ICS A39(c.3), Langworth p.160