Marlborough His Life and Times

London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., , c,1947.. In very good condition.. Edition: This edition in two Books., Binding: contemporary full burgundy cloth over board, title in gilt on flat spine, upper board decorated with Duke of Marlborough's arms in gilt.

, Notes: Marlborough His Life and Times is a panegyric biography written by Winston Churchill about John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Churchill was a lineal descendant of the duke. Churchill had conceived the idea of writing the book by 1929, when the conservative defeat in the general election meant that he was no longer a government minister, giving him both spare time and the loss of his ministerial salary. His first act in preparing the book was to employ Maurice Ashley part-time for a salary of £300 per year to carry out research about Marlborough. Ashley later produced his own biography of Marlborough, in 1939. Churchill, with other assistants, worked on and published a number of different historical books while work on Marlborough was proceeding. Churchill turned seriously to writing Marlborough after Easter 1932, following pressure from his publishers. His initial draft was passed to Edward Marsh, who had been his private secretary while a government minister, with instructions to look out for repetitions, boring passages or clumsy sentences. He wrote over 300 letters requesting information or opinions about the work in progress.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, RA (1874 – 1965) was a British politician, army officer, and writer. He was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, when he led Britain to victory in the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill represented five constituencies during his career as a Member of Parliament (MP). Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, for most of his career he was a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955, but from 1904 to 1924 was instead a member of the Liberal Party. Widely considered one of the 20th century's most significant figures, Churchill remains popular in the UK and Western world, where he is seen as a victorious wartime leader who played an important role in defending liberal democracy from the spread of fascism. Also praised as a social reformer and writer, among his many awards was the Nobel Prize in Literature. Conversely, his imperialist views and comments on race, as well as his sanctioning of human rights abuses in the suppression of anti-imperialist movements seeking independence from the British Empire, have generated considerable controversy.
, Size: 8vo, , Category: Book Biography;