CHURCHILL, WINSTON. (1874-1965). British statesman and author; prime minister from 1940-45 and 1951-55. DS. (“Winston S. Churchill”). ½p. 4to. London, July 30, 1959.

“I approve and accept the terms of the letter dated the 30th July 1959 which you addressed to me, a copy of which is attached hereto…”

Churchill distinguished himself as a soldier, author, and, under Stanley Baldwin, Chancellor of the Exchequer. In that post Churchill returned Great Britain to the gold standard, which led to increased unemployment and a growing unpopularity that culminated in his 1929 election defeat. Although he spent the next ten years out of office, Churchill remained active in public life and, in 1939, when England officially declared war on Germany, he became First Lord of the Admiralty, the governing body of the Royal Navy. He rose to the height of fame as England’s prime minister during World War II. From 1945, when the Labor party regained power, until 1951, when a Conservative victory again made him prime minister, Churchill continued to write and champion the cause of British security and world peace. He is the author of the six-volume The Second World War, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, and Marlborough: His Life and Times, among many other titles, for which he was awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature. The year of our contract, Churchill published Great War Speeches and an abridged one-volume edition of the Second World War, which included a lengthy epilogue, covering the years 1945-1957.

The date is written twice in blue ink in an unidentified hand. Folded with some creasing and wear. Two file holes in the upper margin as well as a small tear. A ribbon is attached to the upper left corner with a red wax seal and at the lower right is an ink stamp “Contract Office File Copy.” In very good condition.