Winston Churchill: The Greatest Figure of Our Time.

CHURCHILL, Winston S.

Item Number: 144135

London: The Illustrated London News, 1954.

First edition of this profusely illustrated work published as an 80th year tribute, published while Churchill was prime minister. Quarto, original stiff wrappers, illustrated throughout. Association copy, inscribed by Churchill in the year of publication as prime minister on the front free endpaper, “To P. G. Oates from Winston S. Churchill 1954.” The recipient, Peter Geoffrey Oates was British civil servant who worked in the Prime Minister’s office at 10 Downing Street from 1951, firstly as private secretary to Attlee, and later to Winston S. Churchill. Edited by Bruce Ingram. In near fine condition. An exceptional association.

Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on May 10th 1940, Winston S. Churchill became Prime Minister of England and took the lead in warning about Nazi Germany and in campaigning for rearmament. His speeches and radio broadcasts helped inspire British resistance, especially during the difficult days of 1940–41 when the British Commonwealth and Empire stood almost alone in its active opposition to Adolf Hitler. A non-academic historian, artist, and prolific writer, Churchill won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his overall, lifetime body of work.