FOR FREE TRADE [First Edition]

FOR FREE TRADE [First Edition]

Identical in format and binding to MR. BRODRICK'S ARMY and just as precious, comprising nine speeches delivered on the title subject by Winston Churchill as a 31-year-old MP for Manchester. FOR FREE TRADE may in fact be rarer than the infamous BRODRICK. Both were produced in small numbers, bound in unprepossing red printed wraps that did not age gracefully. Again, the surviving handful of copies (as few as twelve accounted for) today constitute the stuff of collectors' dreams.

Description: This is, without question, the rarest Churchill first edition available today. In tandem with MR. BRODRICK'S ARMY, FOR FREE TRADE has always been the holy grail of Churchill books and may in fact be even rarer than the infamous BRODRICK. A small, 136 page, paperback-size collection of nine speeches delivered on the title subject by Winston Churchill as a 31-year-old MP for Manchester, FOR FREE TRADE was published (at 1 shilling [25c]) by Arthur L. Humphreys, General Manager of Hatchard's, the venerable London bookshop that still very much exists at number 187 Piccadilly. Hatchard's, in 1906, had a long and illustrious history of publishing pamphlets, political and otherwise, including Winston Churchill's earlier speech compendium, MR. BRODRICK'S ARMY, which Humphreys and Hatchard's had brought out three years earlier. FOR FREE TRADE is identical in format and binding to BRODRICK, bound in unprepossessing red card wrappers with the title, author's name, publisher, date and price starkly printed in black on the front face. The book aged badly and the print run was extremely small. As a result, no more than perhaps twelve copies are today accounted for. This is one of them. The front cover here has triangular losses at each corner, as well as some surface chipping, but is attached and intact. The front cover has also darkened with age and there is a faint pencil marking visible near the publisher's name. The spine has fragmented but is also entirely present. Though published blank, it has been hand-lettered in now-faded ink: "Free Trade. Churchill, M.P" The rear cover (advertising MR. BRODRICK'S ARMY) is brighter and less worn. The binding is intact and the contents are fine, clean and unfoxed. The title page is stamped: "Reference Dept --The National Union -- 10 Apr 1906." The volume is presented here in a simple blue cloth chemise with leather spine label. The last copy of FOR FREE TRADE to have surfaced and sold was in 1998 (here at Chartwell Booksellers).