Thoughts and Adventures

London: Thornton Butterworth Limited, 1932. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. This is the first edition, first printing, in dust jacket. Thoughts and Adventures is Churchill's collection of 23 engaging essays on an incredibly wide variety of subjects. It 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.

The khaki cloth unique to the first printing of this edition is notoriously prone to scuffing, wear, and soiling, the contents proved highly susceptible to spotting, and the first printing dust jacket has become quite scarce in anything approaching collector-worthy condition. This copy is good plus in a good plus dust jacket. The khaki cloth binding shows some typical scuffing with a lightly bumped lower front cover corner and a mild forward lean. There is a single, tiny, and unobtrusive bookworm hole at the upper right rear cover, with a corresponding scar to the rear pastedown. The contents retain a crisp feel with no previous ownership marks, moderate age-toning, and mild spotting primarily confined to the first and final few leaves. The dust jacket is unique to the first printing, with distinctive differences to later printings (and even some later first printings). This dust jacket is substantially complete, with minor loss confined to the flap fold and hinge extremities. The jacket shows definite overall soiling, as well as a rectangular dark patch to a blank portion of the upper spine below the author's name, perhaps caused by a long-lost label or sticker.

The jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover. The virtue of this particular copy lies in the opportunity to acquire a sound and presentable jacketed first printing at a comparatively affordable price; this is the least expensive jacketed first we have offered in quite some time.

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 A95.1.a, Woods/ICS A39(aa.1), Langworth p.156. Item #007457