The World Crisis, full set of 6 British editions, mixed printings by Winston S. Churchill - 1941

London: Thornton Butterworth Limited, and Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1941. Hardcover. Very good. This is a full, mixed printing set of The World Crisis, comprising Thornton Butterworth volumes issued in 1927 and Macmillan & Co. volumes issued in 1941. The British first edition of Churchill's history of The First World War was originally published by Thornton Butterworth as six individual books between 1923 and 1931. Of The World Crisis, Churchill bibliographer Frederick Woods wrote: "The volumes contain some of Churchill's finest writing, weaving the many threads together with majestic ease, describing the massive battles in terms which fitly combine relish of the literary challenge with an awareness of the sombre tragedy of the events." Churchill was in a unique position to write this history, having served both in the Cabinet and on the front; Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty until 1915 and then, after bearing blame for the Dardanelles tragedy, served as a lieutenant colonel leading a battalion in the trenches. Many consider the British edition, with its larger volumes and shoulder notes summarizing the subject of each page, aesthetically superior to the U.S. Here is a full set of British mixed printings. The first four volumes, covering the war years 1911-1918, are all 1927 printings of the British first edition. 1911-1914 is the first edition, seventh printing. 1915 is the first edition, fifth printing. 1916-1918 Part 1 is first edition, second printing. 1916-1918 Part 2 is first edition, fourth printing. The final two volumes - The Aftermath and The Unknown War - are first edition look-alikes issued by Macmillan, which acquired the rights to several Churchill books after Thornton Butterworth went under in 1940. In 1941, Macmillan issued both The Aftermath and The Unknown War from British first edition plates. The Unknown War is a quite scarce and collectable edition in its own right; Macmillan issued a single impression of just 600 copies. Both volumes are similar to their British first edition counterparts and so serve as substitutes when assembling a set. Overall condition of this set is very good. All six volumes retain clean and tight original navy cloth bindings with bright spine gilt and quite respectable shelf presentation, with varying degrees of light wear, mostly confined to extremities. The 1911-1914 and 1915 volumes are notable for exceptionally bright and clean bindings, the 1911-1914 volume bearing transfer browning on the endpapers consistent with dust jacket flaps, indicating that it was likely long protected by its original dust jacket, now lost. The contents of all six volumes are internally bright. The sole previous ownership marks in the set are a wartime gift inscription (dated 1945) on the ffep of The Aftermath and a small London bookseller sticker affixed to the front pastedown of the same volume. Spotting appears confined to the page edges of the first five books with the exception of 1916-1918 Part 1, which shows intermittent internal spotting as well. The scarcest volume in the set - the Macmillan issue of The Unknown War, is a very good copy. The binding is square and tight with bright spine gilt, minor wear at extremities, slight wrinkling of the spine cloth, and slight mottling of the cloth at the bottom edge of the front cover. The contents of The Unknown War show no spotting and no previous ownership marks of any kind, with age-toning of the page edges. Please note that this large set may require additional postage. Bibliographic reference: Cohen A69.2(I).i, A69.2(II).e, A69.2(III-1).b, A69.2(III-2).d, A69.12.a, A69.13; Woods/ICS A31(ab), A31(g) & A31(h), Langworth p.105, 122 & 123.