Can you direct me to a set of the “Collected Works” of Winston Churchill? I suspect they are pricey and rare. So how do I build a collection of Churchill at a reasonable price? —G.S., Maine, USA

Collected Works and Essays

You refer to the Collected Works of Sir Winston Churchill, 40 volumes including four volumes of Collected Essays. It was published by the Library of Imperial History in London in 1974-75. (The Diner’s Club produced another collection of Major Works, but they were not complete.)

These books are discussed elsewhere on this website, and in my Connoisseur’s Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill.

The “Collected Works” are expensive reprints. Nice sets of Churchill’s books can be put together with trade editions for much less, and the Churchill specialist booksellers have a broad listing.

Pros and cons

Nowadays hardly anyone can afford the Collected Works. Dubbed the “Centenary Limited Edition,” some 2000 sets were published in blatant pursuit of lucre. The story (recounted herein) is disappointing. Originals were bound in vellum, which tends to swell and warp, making them hard to remove from their slipcases.

In the 1990s I found and began binding several hundred remaining sheets in leather as well as vellum, but those too are now out of sight. Also, the general editor of the series, the late Fred Woods, edited many of the texts (making changes discussed in detail in the Connoisseur’s Guide), which makes them useless as a source of Churchill’s original words.

The great advantage of the enterprise was the four-volume Collected Essays, the only collection of Churchill’s periodical articles (other than those reprinted in his books) ever published in volume form, with a fine introduction by the late Michael Wolff.

Owing to popular demand the Essays were also issued in a half-blue leather “Centenary Edition,” which was sold separately. Sets sometimes surface in that form, but the Essays were never reprinted, and demand is high, forcing prices up accordingly. Alas, though I’ve tried to interest the publishers of limited editions from Easton Press to the Folio Society in reprinting the set, none has ever bitten the bullet.

Further reading

“The Sordid History of Churchill’s Collected Works,” 2023.

“Churchill’s Collected Essays, Invaluably Compiled by Michael Wolff,” 2023.