Of The World Crisis, Churchill expert and author Richard Langworth wrote "Even those who do not usually read war books will be entranced by Churchill�s account of the awful, unfolding scene, written as if the reader were a colleague, observing over his burly shoulder the march of events." This is the true first edition, as U.S. publication preceded the British. All books are clean and bright first printings with no spotting and no inscriptions except for the one by the author himself. Volume I (1911-1914) is truly fine with an unfaded spine, bright gilt, and square corners. The contents are crisp, clean, tight, and unusually bright. This is as good as it gets without a dust jacket and extraordinarily unsual since Volume I was bound in inferior cloth, resulting in spines that are nearly always discolored and faded with blackened gilt. Volume II (1915) is in near fine condition. Spine just very slightly sunned with a mild vertical discoloration line on the bottom half of the spine, but retaining good color, bright gilt, and showing virtually no exterior wear. Contents crisp, clean, bright, and tight. Volume III (1916-1918), Parts 1 & 2, are both in outstanding fine condition in near-fine unclipped original dust jackets that show only trivial wear and spine darkening. The inscription in Volume IV (The Aftermath) reads "INSCRIBED BY WINSTON S. CHURCHILL 1929". The signature is quite excellent, in a bold hand in black ink across the top third of the half title. The ink shows just a hint of authentic age-spreading but suffers from no fading, fuzziness, or distortion. The book itself is in near-fine condition with bright unfaded boards and spine that show just light scuffing, trivial discoloration spots near the edges, and clean contents. Volume V, The Unknown war, is a clean, bright, tight copy with the only �flaw� being a bookplate on the pastedown. The folding map at page 388 is, miraculously, properly folded with no tears. The dust jacket is bright and clean, but price clipped on the front flap and showing minor wear and losses, almost entirely confined to the lower edge of the front face and the base of the spine. Bibliographic reference: Cohen A69.1, Woods A31(aa).
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