A History of the English Speaking Peoples — Winston S. Churchill | Cassell First Edition 1956 to 1958 | Four Volume Set | Roger Gresley's Copy

Four volumes. Four signatures. Four dates. A man reading Churchill as Churchill published him.

This is the complete first edition, first impression set of Winston S. Churchill's A History of the English Speaking Peoples — his last great work, published by Cassell between 1956 and 1958, and the book that occupied the central interest of his final years. What makes this particular set quietly remarkable is not just what it is, but whose it was and how it came to be assembled.

Each volume carries the signature of Roger Gresley and the month in which he acquired it — Volume I in May 1956, Volume II in November 1956, Volume III in January 1958, Volume IV in October 1958. Roger bought and signed each volume as Churchill published it, one by one across nearly three years, following the great history as it unfolded in real time. This was not a set assembled after the fact or bought as a gift — it was a reading set, gathered volume by volume by a man who wanted to read Churchill as soon as each book appeared.

Roger Gresley was a member of the ancient Gresley family of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, one of the oldest Norman families in England, descended from a follower of William the Conqueror and holders of their Derbyshire seat for nine centuries. The family produced baronets, Members of Parliament, High Sheriffs of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, and — most famously — Sir Nigel Gresley, the celebrated railway engineer who designed the A4 Pacific locomotives including Mallard, which holds the world speed record for a steam locomotive to this day. That a member of this family was reading Churchill's history of the English speaking peoples as it was published feels entirely fitting — this is precisely the kind of book that belongs in precisely this kind of library.

A History of the English Speaking Peoples traces the arc of British and English-speaking civilisation from Caesar's invasion of Britain in 55 BC to the end of the Second Boer War in 1902. Churchill began the work in the 1930s during what he called his wilderness years, set it aside when war came, returned to government, won the war, wrote his six-volume history of it, served a second premiership — and only then, in his early eighties, brought this history to completion. He remarked in his preface that the book had slumbered peacefully until 1956, when things had quietened down. Reading accounts of his final years, one is struck by how rapidly he sank into decline after the fourth and final volume was published. It was, in a very real sense, his last act.

The four volumes are bound in the publisher's original dark red cloth with gilt lettering and titles to the spines — handsome, authoritative and unmistakably Cassell at their mid-century best.

Condition: Good, consistent with a set that was bought, read and used as published. The gilt lettering to the spines of Volumes I, III and IV is bright and clear; Volume II shows some dulling to the gilt. All four volumes have honest scuffing to the base of the spine from repeated removal from a bookshelf — entirely expected on a well-read working set. Foxing is present throughout all four volumes to the page edges, consistent with the paper stock of this period and noted honestly. The bindings are firm and the text throughout is entirely legible and unmarked. No dust jackets — as is the case with the great majority of surviving copies of this set that were actually read rather than preserved.

About this edition: The first impression of each volume is identified by the copyright page reading simply "First Published 1956" or "First Published 1957" or "First Published 1958" with no notice of later impressions. All four volumes in this set are confirmed first impressions. Volume I was published on 23 April 1956 — Roger Gresley signed his copy the following month.

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