CHURCHILL, Winston Spencer (1874-1965). Lord Randolph Churchill. London: Macmillan and Co., 1906.

CHURCHILL, Winston Spencer (1874-1965). Lord Randolph Churchill. London: Macmillan and Co., 1906.

2 volumes, 8vo. Half-titles, photogravure frontispiece portraits of Lord Randolph Churchill, illustrated with tipped-in facsimiles. (Marginal dampstain on preliminary leaves of first volume, including frontispiece and title-page, occasional finger-soiling.) Original maroon cloth gilt, uncut (hinges cracked or starting, spines a little darkened, some light spotting to cloth); housed together in folding morocco-backed case. Provenance: Thomas Walden (inscription).

FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY TO HIS VALET, inscribed on the front free endpaper of the first volume: "T. Walden / from / Winston S. Churchill. / 30 Jan. 1906." A fine association copy inscribed by Churchill to his valet (who formerly worked for his father, Lord Randolph) of Churchill's masterful biography of his father. The book is more than an exercise in filial piety or a defense of Lord Randolph's provocative stand on Home Rule. It is a superb political history of the late Victorian era, told with verve and keen insight into the motives of the major players. Thomas Walden had begun his service with Lord Randolph and later became Churchill's "man" since he accompanied him to South Africa in 1899. Woods A8(a).

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