MARLBOROUGH: His Life and Times by Churchill Winston - 1933-38

London: George G. Harrap, 1933-38. 4 volumes. First edition of each volume. Portrait frontispieces, and a great profusion of illustrated plates, plans (many folding), document facsimiles and maps (several folding), in all, totaling hundreds of illustrations throughout. Thick 8vo, very handsomely bound in three-quarter red morocco over red cloth lettered and decorated with lion emblems in gilt between raised bands on the spines, t.e.g. [iv], 557; [iv], 605; [iv], 556; [iv], 652 pp. Appendices and index to each volume. A very handsome and finely preserved set. The bindings in near pristine, excellent condition and showing no wear. The text-blocks all very clean, crisp and tight, as perfect but for only the occasional evidence of age, usually at the prelims as is normal. SCARCE FIRST EDITIONS IN DELUXE BINDINGS OF RED MOROCCO GILT. CHURCHILL’S VERY IMPORTANT HISTORICAL WORK ON MARLBOROUGH. Scarce in First Edition, First issue format.
Vilified by history, Churchill sets out to give a true depiction of his famous ancestor: “ It is my hope to recall this great shade from the past, and not only to invest him with his panoply, but make him living and intimate to modern eyes. I hope to show that he was not only the foremost of English soldiers, but in the first rank among the statesmen of our history; not only that he was a Titan, for that is not disputed, but that he was a virtuous and benevolent being, eminently seviceable to to his age and country, capable of drawing harmony and design from chaos, and one who only needed an earlier and still wider authority to have made a more ordered and a more tolerant civilization for his own time and to help the future.” (from the preface)