Great Contemporaries
"These essays on Great Men of our age have been written by me at intervals during the last eight years. Although each is self-contained, they throw, from various angles, a light upon the main course of the events through which we have lived. I hope they will be found to illustrate some of its less well-known aspects. Taken together they should present not only the actors but the scene. In their sequence they may perhaps be the stepping-stones of historical narrative."
FIRST EDITION, IN BEAUTIFUL FULL MOROCCO BINDING BY SANGORSKI AND SUTCLIFFE.
One of Churchill's most enduring works, Great Contemporaries contains Churchill's candid and insightful portraits of some of the most influential and intriguing individuals of his time. Includes essays on Shaw, Chamberlain, Balfour, Clememceau, T.E. Lawrence, Hitler, and others. Illustrated with full-page photographic portraits of each subject.
Excerpts:
On T.E. Lawrence:
"Lawrence was one of those beings whose pace of life was faster and more intense than the ordinary. Just as an aeroplane only flies by its speed and pressure against the air, so he flew best and easiest in the hurricane. He was not in complete harmony with the normal."
On George Bernard Shaw:
"Few people practise what they preach, and no one less so than Mr. Bernard Shaw... The world has long watched with tolerance and amusement the nimble antics and gyrations of this unique and double-headed chameleon, while all the time the creature was eager to be taken seriously. "
On Hindenburg:
"We may be sure that the renowned veteran had not motive but love of country, and that he did his best with declining mental strength to cope with problems never before presented to a ruler."
London: Thornton Butterworth, Ltd., 1937. Octavo, late 20th-century full crushed red morocco by Sangorski and Sutcliffe for Asprey (with binder's stamp on front dentelles), elaborately gilt-decorated spine, gilt-ruled boards, gilt-dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Mild uniform fading to spine, otherwise fine. One of Churchill's most beloved works, in an outstanding binding of the highest quality.
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