A Speech
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
First edition, only printing of one of Churchill’s most famous speeches, “the Lion’s voice” (PMM).
A very good copy preserved in publisher’ wrappers, as issued.
8vo 16 pp, publisher’s wrappers.
245 x 153 mm.
Churchill, Winston. A Speech by the Prime Minister the right honourable Winston Churchill in the House of Commons August 20th 1940.
First edition, only printing of one of Churchill's most famous speeches.
Cohen, A131.1 ; Woods, A60(a) ; PMM, 424.
“If the Gettysburg Address is one of the most moving statements of democracy confronted by tragedy, Churchill’s historic exhortations are its equal in their ringing assertion of democracy confronting the seemingly irresistible forces of tyranny. (Lincoln and Churchill were far more than a century apart in temperament but they shared a genius for language). This (as Sir Isaiah Berlin has written) was “a man larger than life, composed of bigger and simpler elements than ordinary men, a gigantic historical figure during his own lifetime, superhumanly bold, strong and imaginative… an orator of prodigious powers… ”
Churchill's speech to Parliament of August 20th, 1940 was occasioned in part by the Battle of Britain and famously honored the RAF pilots who almost single-handedly prevented Nazi invasion of England. In his speech, Churchill encapsulated and immortalized the struggle when he uttered the words : "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
Though Churchill spoke for nearly fifty minutes, giving a survey of the dark, wide field, his phrase in honor of the heroism of British fighter pilots led this speech to become known as "The Few".
Of Churchill, Edward R. Murrow said : "He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle." This speech, from the early and fraught months of Churchill’s wartime premiership, typifies the soaring and defiant oratory that sustained his countrymen and inspired the free world. It also demonstrates why, when Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953, it was partly " for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values."
The famous bibliographic reference Printing and the Mind of Man, which surveys the impact of the printed word on Western Civilization, singles out this edition of this speech.
A very good copy.
