ALS signed “Winston S. Churchill,” one page, 5 x 8, Villa Rêve D'or letterhead, April 7, 1923. Handwritten letter to newspaper editor Robert Donald, in full: "I send you herewith a copy of my new book, with my best wishes." Affixed inside a first edition of said book, The World Crisis: 1911-1914, hardcover bound in the publisher's original blue cloth, published in London by Thornton Butterworth Limited in April 1923, 6.75 x 9.5, 536 pages. The original release date was April 10th; Churchill sent copies to friends prior to the official release. Autographic condition: fine, with light rippling to the letter from mounting. Book condition: VG/None.
This was the first volume of six in Churchill's history of the First World War, widely considered to be his magnum opus. His American biographer William Manchester wrote: 'His masterpiece is The World Crisis, published over a period of several years, 1923 to 1931, a six-volume, 3,261-page account of the Great War, beginning with its origins in 1911 and ending with its repercussions in the 1920s. Magnificently written, it is enhanced by the presence of the author at the highest councils of war and in the trenches as a battalion commander.' Skilled as a writer, orator, and historian, Churchill would receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 'for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.'
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