The War Speeches, a full set of seven British first editions - Into Battle, The Unrelenting Struggle, The End of the Beginning, Onwards to Victory, The Dawn of Liberation, Victory, and Secret Session Speeches, the final volume an author's presentation copy inscribed and dated by Churchill in 1947 and including a typed presentation letter signed by Churchill on his Hyde Park Gate stationery, the original envelope, and the author's printed "WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF Winston S. Churchill" presentation card

London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1941-1946. First edition, first printings. Hardcover. This full, seven-volume set of British first edition, first printings of Winston Churchill’s Second World War speeches offers a vanishingly rare trifecta of virtues. First, the set as a whole is unequivocally the finest we have ever encountered. Second, the presentation volume therein – the seventh and final volume – is equally fine, magnificently well-preserved. Third, the presentation volume is not only signed by Churchill, but inscribed, dated, and accompanied by and signed presentation letter from Churchill, providing definitive and compelling provenance.

The presentation inscription, letter, envelopes, and cards

Secret Session Speeches is inscribed by Churchill in five lines on the half title: “To | Denny C. Stokes | from | Winston S. Churchill | Christmas 1947”. An accompanying typed letter signed by Churchill on his Hyde Park Gate stationery is dated “December 8, 1947” and reads: “Dear Mr. Stokes, | I have received the most handsome album THE | FIGHT FOR FREEOM which you have been good enough to send | me. I am very much obliged to you for this gesture of | goodwill, and for the all-too-kind remarks contained in your | letter. Thank you so much. | I am sending you a copy of my SECRET SESSION | SPEECHES, which I have signed for you, as an expression | of my pleasure in your gift.” The letter is signed by Churchill and accompanied by two original envelopes – one, in which the letter resides, featuring Stokes’s typed Ealing address but unfranked, consonant with its inclusion with the inscribed book. A second, slightly larger envelope (in which the first envelope now resides) features the printed House of Commons seal on the flap, is franked, and is hand-addressed to a different “Stokes” at the same address.

A further virtue of this inscribed presentation copy is inclusion of two rare original cards. Richard Langworth reports presentation copies of Secret Session Speeches “accompanied by a 2 1/4 x 3 3/4 in white card printed in black, 'WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF Winston S. Churchill' (name in script), surrounded by a light blue decorative border." Langworth also reports "a second card of the same size reading "The Reference to "American Authorities" in the Introduction refers to the United States Government and General Eisenhower" and surrounded by a thin light blue rule." (A Connoisseur’s Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill, p.250) In addition to Churchill’s inscription, Churchill’s presentation letter, and the envelopes, this inscribed presentation copy features both presentation cards.

Edition and Condition

Between 1941 and 1946, Churchill's war speeches were published in seven individual volumes. The British first editions are visually striking, but were printed on cheap wartime paper, bound in coarse cloth, and wrapped in bright, thin, fragile dust jackets. They proved highly susceptible to spotting, soiling, and fading, so the passage of time has been hard on most surviving first editions. This particular set is simply magnificent, each volume truly fine in a near fine plus or better dust jacket. Jackets, bindings, and contents are all strikingly clean. Of note, Into Battle is not only first edition, but first state, denoted by the absence of pagination at pages 78 and 294, and is bound in the smoother, darker blue cloth we correlate exclusively to the first state. The Unrelenting Struggle is likewise first state, denoted by irregular pagination at page 281. Such sets – even more so such beautifully preserved inscribed volumes – are virtually a chimera. All four volumes are housed together in a full, navy, Morocco goatskin case with dropback top and front, magnetic closure, ribbon pull tab, and silver title and author print.

The recipient, Denny Stokes

The recipient of this inscribed book was Dennis “Denny” Crane Stokes (1900-1975). While we know nothing about the “most handsome album THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM” to which Churchill refers in his letter, we do know that Stokes made a name for himself building dioramas, predominantly historical and military in nature. Denny shared with Churchill a keen interest in history, in the minutiae of battle tactics, and in the use of miniatures to portray both.

Stokes may have served at the end of the First World War with the Royal Scots Fusiliers and been wounded around the time the Allies breached the Hindenburg Line in September 1918 – another subject of Stokes’s known dioramas. Churchill served with the Royal Scots Fusiliers during the First World War. Certainly, it may be imagined that Stokes’s dioramas appealed to Churchill who, as a youth, arranged his own considerable collection of toy soldiers into elaborate battle scenes. The accumulation of these notional connections may explain why Stokes received such a compellingly personalized letter and inscribed book from Churchill.

Reference: Cohen A142.1.a, A172.1.a, A183.1.a, A194.1.a, A214.1.a, A223.1.b, A227.2.a; Woods/ICS A66(a.1), A89(a.1), A94(a.1), A101(a.1), A107(a.1), A112(ab), A114(b); Langworth pages 204, 213, 218, 223, 228, 234, 250.