Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - April - 2010 Issue
Outstanding Items from Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller
The massive Collected Works of Winston Churchill.
Item 4 is an account of another voyage of monumental importance, but for a very different reason: Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, Between the Years 1826 and 1836... This account includes three volumes and the appendix. The first is Philip King's account of the first trip from 1826-1830, the second Robert Fitzroy's account of the second trip and circumnavigation from 1831-1836. However, it is the third volume that makes this work so important, that being naturalist Charles Darwin's account of the natural history of South America and certain islands off its coast. It was what he observed there that led Darwin to reach his theory of evolution that so fundamentally changed the way we look at natural history, especially our own. £57,500 (US $86,447).
Item 179 is a major philosophical work: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, by Ludwig Wittengenstein. This 1922 first issue laid out Wittgenstein's belief in how words mirrored reality, a scientific look at language that dominated philosophical thinking. Wittgenstein would later repudiate these positions, but others remained followers of his first incarnation. £2,250 (US $3,382).
Winston Churchill is most often associated with his skills other than as a writer, such as saving the world from the horrors of Nazism during World War II when few others were willing to make a stand. Nevertheless, Churchill was a prolific and great writer, and when he wasn't personally making history, he was writing about it. Item 50 is a thorough compilation of his writings, including both speeches he made while making history and his later reviews of historic events: The Collected Works. Centenary Limited Edition, 34 volumes published in 1973. Try reading all of this, and then just imagine the effort put in to writing it in your spare time. £6,000 (US $9,025).
Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller may be reached at +44 (0)20 7591 0220 or mail@peterharringtonbooks.com. Their website is www.peterharringtonbooks.com.
