The Second World War. Churchill, Winston S.

First UK editions, first impressions, handsomely bound for the luxury purveyors Asprey. Churchill's masterpiece is the single most important historical account of the Second World War, and a major factor in Churchill being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. As Max Beloff observed, there was no statesman of the 20th century "whose retrospective accounts of the great events in which he has taken part have so dominated subsequent historical thinking". Churchill was contractually obliged to allow the US editions to be published first, but he treated the UK editions as definitive and reserved his final proof corrections for them. Cohen A240.4; Woods A123(b). Six volumes, octavo (205 x 132 mm). Late 20th-century red morocco for Asprey, spines lettered in gilt, gilt rule to compartments, covers, and turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Maps and diagrams, some folding. A fine set.