Churchill Book Collector – Literature Essay Examples
Are you thinking about a trip to Boston at some point in your future? Rare booksellers, collectors, and archivists use many words and phrases that can be difficult to parse. In addition, there are simply a lot of those words and phrases to learn. And in many cases, there are multiple terms in use that refer to the same thing!
Topics: Book Collecting , Literature. Whether you already have a collection of Irish literature or you are thinking about starting one, you should begin thinking about where you want to start and, ultimately, where you want to end up.
There are many different ways you could approach an Irish literature collection, from eighteenth-century Irish literature up to the present. You might, for example, consider a collection made up entirely of Irish poetry. Or you might develop a collection that focuses on Irish independence and is linked to the Easter Rising. There are a lot of different possibilities. Holstein , Montgomery Evans II. That the free-ranging, capitalistic mind, linchpin of our economy, pauses for a moment and rises to a larger cause.
In this case, my book collection. Booksellers and book collectors share a symbiotic relationship. We are bound together with ecstatic moments and occasional torment, in the best of cases a fulfilling long-term union develops between us, in rare instances, an acrimonious separation. I collect material about rare booksellers themselves, past and present, so this uncommon bypath usually is met with surprise and curiosity by those currently active in the trade.
It is not often a bookseller gets a request for their own material — previous catalogues, perhaps a bibliography written by them, an essay contributed to a journal, and so on. And this is a good thing, for rare booksellers are always on the hunt. Placement of an item in the right home is a priority to many booksellers. May good fortune, high spirits, worthy efforts, and more pleasant trials attend you and yours in the coming year.
Again, at the risk of further self-reference, we wish you and yours good fortune, high spirits, worthy efforts, and more pleasant trials in the coming year. This post, prompted by new additions to our inventory, touches on four First World War poets — Brooke, Graves, Owen, and Sassoon — and the wounds, exhaustions, extinguishments, and scarred endurances these poets lived and expressed.
Much ink has spilled analyzing how the unprecedented carnage of the First World War fundamentally disrupted and reshaped social, political, and cultural conceptions.
It turned out that even the spilling of ink was altered; the romantic conceits of poetry numbered among the many casualties of the First World War, and the changes wrought in some of the leading poetic voices became both reflection and herald of a terribly altered world.
Rupert Brooke rather makes the point. Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;. In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. As if to punctuate his poem, not long after it was published, Brooke died.
His body was taken to the Greek island of Skyros, from whence Achilles had sailed for Troy, and buried in an olive grove. A telegram from the Admiral at Lemnos tells us that this life has closed at the moment when it seemed to have reached its springtime.
A voice had become audible, a note had been struck, more true, more thrilling, more able to do justice to the nobility of our youth in arms engaged in this present war, than any other more able to express their thoughts of self-surrender, and with a power to carry comfort to those who watch them so intently from afar.
The voice has been swiftly stilled. Only the echoes and the memory remain; but they will linger. During the last few months of his life, months of preparation in gallant comradeship and open air, the poet-soldier told with all the simple force of genius the sorrow of youth about to die, and the sure triumphant consolations of a sincere and valiant spirit. The thoughts to which he gave expression in the very few incomparable war sonnets which he has left behind will be shared by many thousands of young men moving resolutely and blithely forward in this, the hardest, the cruelest, and the least-rewarded of all the wars that men have fought.
They are a whole history and revelation of Rupert Brooke himself. But Brooke never saw front line action. He died of blood poisoning, presumably brought on by an insect bite to his lip. This may have been fortunate, as Brooke died en route to the charnel house of Gallipoli, where his Hood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division landed days later, and where nearly half a million Turkish and Allied troops became casualties.
The death of Wilfred Owen came three and a half long years of war later and is a study in contrast. After stint at Craiglockhart War Hospital to treat shell-shock, Owen returned to the front.
By the end of October, , he found himself poised on the western side of the Sambre-Oise canal. War veined the water with a dreadful red, before it all mingled to one tint. Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod.
All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Quick, boys! But it changed poetry. And it made — and unmade — poets. A scrappy pugilist, Robert Graves reputedly earned the respect of his fellow soldiers and his first command through erudition with his fists, not his letters.
After surviving the annihilation of his Royal Welch Fusiliers, he was transferred and met Siegfried Sassoon Graves initially thought Sassoon too gung-ho about the war. But he was anything but gung-ho when he chucked his MC ribbon into the River Mersey. And when Sassoon wrote a scathing anti-war declaration that was read in Parliament, his friend Graves lobbied for his hospitalization in lieu of a court martial.
Upon release, Sassoon was lucky to be once again merely wounded. His life and literary career, like that of Graves, would be long. Owen, like Brooke, suffered the bargain of Achilles — glory in lieu of longevity. But these four encapsulate many of the agonies, contradictions, convolutions, and evolutions endured by the poets and poetry of the First World War. We recently had the privilege of spending some time with a compelling inscribed Churchill book — a British first edition of The World Crisis: The Aftermath.
The story is one worth telling. Hence this post. This particular copy is inscribed and dated to Arthur James Balfour, the man who replaced Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty when Churchill was forced to resign in , who was Prime Minister when Churchill dramatically repudiated the Conservative Party in , and beside whom Churchill worked in both Coalition and Conservative Governments of the s.
Churchill inscribed this presentation copy of the first edition six days prior to publication. Using their respective initials, the tone is familiar, befitting their long association, and the first and third lines have a hint of playful versification — almost certainly intentional from a seasoned wordsmith like Churchill.
Inked in four lines, the blank sheet recto preceding the half title reads:. Then, being Churchill, he wrote about it. The World Crisis was published in six volumes between and The first four volumes span the war years, with two supplemental volumes. This fifth volume, The Aftermath , covers the postwar years — a decade-long span during most of which Churchill and Balfour both served in high Government office.
The work has both literary and collector appeal — particularly jacketed first editions like this one. But those comparatively prosaic virtues are far eclipsed in this particular copy by the singular inscription and association. Balfour led his party — either in opposition or in Government — for two decades. From his exalted position, Balfour supported Winston in his early endeavors.
Churchill, Vol. Churchill won his first seat on 1 October Taking his seat in Parliament at the age of 26, Churchill was soon following family form, dissenting from, and fomenting backbench revolt against, the Conservative Party — ironically now led by Balfour.
Moreover, the First World War and its aftermath — apropos the title of the inscribed work in question — tethered Balfour and Churchill even more than had the preceding decades.
WSC, Great Contemporaries , p. II, p. In differing with Churchill over submarines, Balfour was more prophetically astute. Gilbert, Vol. III, p. Churchill eventually resigned even his nominal Cabinet posts to spend the rest of his political exile as a lieutenant colonel leading a battalion in the trenches at the Front.
Then came yet another dramatic political misstep, this one with Balfour at the center. Published by Chatwin Books in , Book Collecting Now i s a newer guide focused on novice collectors that introduces book collecting and has relevant information for modern buyers.
Budman also published a guide, Instant Expert: Collecting Books, in by House of Collectibles, which focuses on the financial components of book collecting. The third edition of Books Finds by Ian C. Ellis was released by Perigree in The focus is on the business of bookselling rather than a passion for collecting books, mainly in the modern American market.
An in-depth look at collecting, this guide has a dictionary of book collecting terms, a key to identifying first editions, a directory of auction houses and rare book dealers, and more.
This information is relevant no matter your means of purchasing books. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Find out how here! Alternatively, find a twitterer you like and see if they have a ” biblio ” list UI is clean and efficient. They do good works, too opening libraries in S.
Forums can be interesting and useful to the emerging book collector There is no question they have a deeper pool of dealers with the noted caveat that the term “dealer” is somewhat looser.
Expect a low signal to noise ratio on common-uncommon material They have a knowledgeable pool of sellers and a fair bit of interesting and useful reference materials. There is no doubt that they have a stunning selection of new material and an increasingly deep offering of “used and rare”.
They have made noise of late that they are creating a venue for “rare and collectible” material N. It is increasingly difficult to properly describe “unique” copies, you can not provide scholarly links in descriptions, and they have made it difficult to communicate directly with the book sellers.
They are the pound gorilla in the room, but they move a lot of books You can search on BF to search all the major selling venues at once.
Private Libraries Association : An association comprised of collectors, based in the UK, but with chapters worldwide. Great exhibits and resources.
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Churchill granted Lawrence three months leave beginning 1 March to afford Lawrence time to work on his Seven Pillars of Wisdom manuscript. Lawrence never really returned.
Churchill finally allowed Lawrence to leave the payroll of the Colonial Office at the beginning of July So it was that Lawrence, officially an adviser on Arabian affairs, addressed his 4 July letter of resignation to Shuckburgh:. It seems to me that the time has come when I can fairly offer my resignation from the Middle East Department. You will remember that I was an emergency appointment, made because Mr. Churchill meant to introduce changes in our policy, and because he thought that my help would be useful during the expected stormy period.
Political questions there are still, of course, and wide open; there always will be, but their expression and conduct has been growing steadily more constitutional. For long there has not been an outbreak of any kind; and while it would be foolish to seem too hopeful, yet at the same time I think there is no present prospect of trouble.
As I said, I think of myself as an emergency appointment. There are many other things I want to do and I came unwillingly in the first place.
So if Mr. Churchill permits, I shall be very glad to leave so prosperous a ship. I need hardly say that I am always at his disposal if ever there is a crisis, or in any job, small or big, for which he can convince me that I am necessary.
Although the letter was clearly pitched to Churchill, despite the formality of being addressed to Shuckburgh, Lawrence concluded:. The autograph letter signed by Churchill fills the entire 8 x 10 inch Downing Street, S. I should have been glad if you would have stayed with us longer. I hope you are not unduly sanguine in your belief that our difficulties are largely surmounted. Accompanying the letter is the original, 8. The envelope flap features the same embossed Colonial Office seal as the stationery.
Lawrence 14 Barton St Westminster S. Wilson, p. His remaining years would be spent on literary aspirations, in tortured efforts to encapsulate his First World War experience, in the feigned obscurity of his assumed names and enlistment in the Royal Air Force, on his diverse friendships, and, of course, on his motorcycles. The impression it produced was overpowering… The copy you gave me, with its inscription, is in every sense one of my most valuable possessions. Churchill had begun his career as an itinerant cavalry officer and war correspondent, eager to prove his mettle both on the battlefield and in print.
And though he chose politics as his lifelong vocation, Churchill was, within his sphere, conspicuously headstrong and unorthodox. Hence it should be little surprise that Churchill so regarded such a remarkably literate, conspicuously gifted, iconoclastic, intrepid, and heroic paladin. Diffident, ascetic, and distinctly uncomfortable in the limelight, devoid of political ambition, masochistic, and defined as much by personal demons as by any public persona, Lawrence was a different creature than Churchill.
They differed in upbringing, temperament, education, and even stature — physical, social, and political. And yet the two men seemed to recognize in one another fundamentally kindred sensibilities and an unusually stubborn commitment to the integrity of their internal, often unconventional, sense of direction.
For all the differences between them, these two men shared even greater differences from those around them. Perhaps that allowed them to appreciate one another. Churchill, famously a politician, was also a prolific and celebrated writer, a soldier and journalist, an ardent social reformer, an icon of the Conservative Party, a staunch defender of British imperialism, a pioneering internationalist, a bellicose adversary, a fair-minded peacemaker, a painter, a pilot, and even — though a poor one — a bricklayer.
In short, Churchill was capable of recognizing a polymath in Lawrence. Certainly, Lawrence became best known for his First World War role in Arabia and for the famous expression of this time and experience in his magnum opus, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. He had one of those master keys which unlock the doors of many kinds of treasure-houses. He was a savant as well as a soldier. He was an archaeologist as well as a man of action.
He was an accomplished scholar as well as an Arab partisan. He was a mechanic as well as a philosopher. His background of somber experience and reflection only seemed to set forth more brightly the charm of and gaiety of his companionship, and the generous majesty of his nature. His published volumes of correspondence reveal his engagement with an incredibly diverse array of foremost intellectual and political luminaries of the early twentieth century.
While Lawrence lived one always felt — I certainly felt strongly — that some overpowering need would draw him from the modest path he chose to tread and set him once again in full action at the centre of memorable events. Had he lived, Lawrence would have been 51 years old. Recently we had the privilege of acquiring a compelling artifact from the first political campaign Winston S. Churchill contested as a Liberal in January This extravagantly rare leaflet publication — potentially unique thus — is the first edition, only printing, of Winston S.
Of the three copies known to us, this is the only privately-held copy of the four-page leaflet. In the first days of , Winston Churchill was 31 years old.
Already he had been in Parliament for half a decade. Yet already he was on his second political party. On 2 January he published his two-volume biography of his father. Immediately thereafter, he campaigned for eight days in North-West Manchester, hoping to win his first election as a Liberal. Churchill arrived at Manchester on 4 January to campaign; this election address had already been published on 1 January. RS, Vol. II , pp. The leaflet consists of a single sheet folded once vertically to form four panels.
It has hurried to place retrograde legislaton upon the Statute Book. It has consented to every abrogation or infringement of liberty, constitutional or personal, at home or abroad, that was suggested to it.
Under its hand the procedure of the House of Commons has been mutilated, and respect for Parliamentary institutions has been notably and notoriously diminished. Jealous of nothing save the leisure of its members, it has bartered Parliamentary rights for longer holidays and easier hours of session, and shirked urgent public business at the promptings of personal indolence… grudged the freedom of speech, conspired against the freedom of trade, parodied the freedom and the dignity of labour… enabled a Minister to maintain in office himself and a small clique of favourites — mostly incompetent — and to rule in default of national esteem and in defiance of popular authority for upwards of two whole years… It is wonderful that a Ministry with so ill a record, and such doubtful and divided aims should fear to present themselves at the bar of public judgment.
Manchester had been a Conservative Party stronghold for nearly fifty years. Nonetheless, on 13 January Churchill, at the age of 31, won the traditionally Conservative seat with 5, votes out of a total of 10, votes cast with 89 percent of the electorate voting. This conspicuously political leaflet and canvassing leaf is a tangible reminder of the bare-knuckle electoral underpinnings of a life spent in politics.
All of that depended on the support of the voters that he needed to place and keep him in office, and who he was already learning to cultivate in this year-old piece of political ephemera that has — remarkably -both survived and made its way to us. Gary Stiles has done something really cool. Well… Gary is a physician, medical researcher, corporate executive, and student of history. But most relevant to this post, Gary is a lifelong collector of Winston S.
And Gary is the author of the soon-to-be published Churchill in Punch. His book is the first ever effort to definitively catalogue, describe, and contextualize all of the many Punch cartoons featuring Churchill. Why is that a big deal? After all, Churchill was cartooned in myriad publications. Well, Punch was… Punch. From to , the magazine cast a satirical eye on life in Britain. It charted the interests, concerns and frustratons of the country and, today, it stands as an invaluable resource for social historians… Punch combined humour, illustration and political debate with a fresh and radical audacity… In the Western world, Punch played a significant role in the development of satire.
In the field of illustration, it practically revolutionised it. Punch or The London Charivari began featuring Churchill cartoons in , when his political career was just beginning.
That political career would last two thirds of a century, see Churchill occupy Cabinet office during each of the first six decades of the twentieth century, carry him twice to the premiership and, further still, into the annals of history as a preeminent statesman. And throughout that time, Punch satirized Churchill in cartoons — more than of them, the work of more than 50 different artists. On these very often they form their views of public men and public affairs; on these very often they vote… But how… would you like to be cartooned yourself?
How would you like to feel that millions of people saw you always in the most ridiculous situations, or portrayed as every kind of wretched animal, or with a nose on your face like a wart, when really your nose is quite a serviceable and presentable member?
How would you like to feel that millions of people think of you like that? Fancy having that process going on every week, often every day, over the whole of your life… But it is not so bad as you would expect. Just as eels are supposed to get used to skinning, so politicians get used to being caricatured. In fact, by a strange trait in human nature they even get to like it. Churchill and Punch was a near-perfect relationship between satirists and subject.
That Churchill was distinctive in both persona and physical appearance helped make him easy to caricature. To his persona and appearance he added myriad additional satirical temptations, not just props, like his cigars, siren suits, V-sign, and hats, but also a variety of ancillary avocations and vocations, like polo, painting, brick-laying, and writing. All these were occasionally exalted and most often skewered as well. Some Punch cartoons were laudatory, some critical, and many humorous, like the man himself.
Nearly always, Churchill was distinctly recognizable, a larger-than-life character whose presence caricature served only to magnify. Now, thanks to Gary, we can see the complete, coherent arc of that character throughout his long public life as portrayed through the myriad cartoons of multiple generations of Punch artists. Churchill in Punch will be published by Unicorn Publishing Group.
We are informed by the publisher that the UK publication date is 9 June, with U. Copies may be pre-ordered. HERE on Amazon. So there is irony in seeing an archaeologist forgotten. We have a natural affinity to archaeologists. Yet — with some chagrin — we confess that we did not know about Ann until a stroke of luck brought her life to our attention a few weeks ago.
But most interesting to us, this inscribed copy caused us to dig into the history of an extraordinary woman who merits remembrance, and whose own inspiration to film had to wait quite a bit longer. She clearly acquired this book while a student. Well, in this blog post we finally go into it. After graduation, Ann Axtel undertook field training with the American School of Prehistoric Research in France and then entered professional life as an archaeologist.
In this exciting climate, Ann married fellow archaeologist Earl Halstead Morris Fortunately, Ann and Earl shared professional passion.
Beginning during their honeymoon, they excavated and explored ancient Native American sites in Arizona. While their work would take them to sites spanning Mesa Verde in Colorado to Aztec Ruins in New Mexico to a Mayan city in eastern Mexico, Arizona arguably yielded their most important contributions to archaeology.
Certainly, all three individuals present in this inscription — Robert Frost, Earl Morris, and Ann Axtell Morris — labored for their opportunities. Frost had repeated flirtations with penury before he published his first book of poetry at the age of You might be wondering precisely what a bookplate is, whether it is a newer addition to the book, and how it affects the value.
In all cases where a book contains a bookplate, it depends. In the end, you could decide to establish an entire rare book collection around the bookplate, seeking out objects that contain them or seeking out the bookplates themselves. Are you thinking about a trip to Boston at some point in your future? Rare booksellers, collectors, and archivists use many words and phrases that can be difficult to parse.
In addition, there are simply a lot of those words and phrases to learn. And in many cases, there are multiple terms in use that refer to the same thing!
Topics: Book Collecting , Literature. Whether you already have a collection of Irish literature or you are thinking about starting one, you should begin thinking about where you want to start and, ultimately, where you want to end up.
There are many different ways you could approach an Irish literature collection, from eighteenth-century Irish literature up to the present. You might, for example, consider a collection made up entirely of Irish poetry.
Or you might develop a collection that focuses on Irish independence and is linked to the Easter Rising. There are a lot of different possibilities. But we do want to give you insight into some of the most collectible and sought-after works of Irish literature. A blog about books. Rare books. Jul 1, Feb 11, Placement of an item in the right home is a priority to many booksellers. Two of my recent acquisitions are good examples.
Labels: readkurt , abraham lincoln , American book collecting , daniel fish , joseph benjamin oakleaf , Kurt Zimmerman. Wife afraid to enter. They usually arrive one at a time and the backlog is manageable, but this last year has been a deluge. Stacks of book everywhere in my office: desk, chairs, table. My in-house catalogue goes light years beyond an orderly list-keeping: most of the items are association copies and each one merits at least a brief explanation that often expands with research into a mini-essay.
But this is part of the fun for me—story upon story to discover, expound, resuscitate. I find time when I can to catalog, usually in the evenings and sometimes during the day when work is slow.
It also can be an excuse when yardwork is required or a welcome respite when life takes a stressful turn. The results of this thirty plus year pursuit of biblio-bliss is a current file of 1, pages in 10 point type, and , words.
The bookseller Dorothy Sloan, one of my early mentors, encouraged me to catalog my collection in some form. Thankfully, I listened, which has not always been my strong suit. And believe me, I do, and I also back the file up to the cloud with religious regularity.
So, what of it the last couple of weeks? What books and stories have found the top of the stack to input?