Exceedingly uncommon second edition, the only realistically obtainable contemporary edition, the first being known in just three copies (Trinity College, Toronto; Churchill College, Cambridge; the collection of the Marquess of Bath). Only two other copies of the second edition have appeared at auction in over thirty years, neither of which preserved the original wrappers.
Mr. Brodrick’s Army begins with Churchill’s Commons speech on the New Army Scheme of 13 May 1901, his first major set-piece speech: “I took six weeks to prepare this speech, and learnt it so thoroughly off by heart that it hardly mattered where I began it or how I turned it”. This volume gathers together his interventions in opposition to St John Brodrick’s plans for increased military spending, “the very subject that had toppled his father” (Woods, Artillery of Words).
There has been much debate about the two versions of this work, turning on questions of precedence, actual publication, and funding, to which Ronald I. Cohen has now offered satisfyingly coherent answers. On the key issue of the change in format between the simple self-wrappered, minutely printed version, and this present brightly-wrappered, rather handsome, and wide-margined publication, he is unequivocal and persuasive. “Humphreys initially chose a cheaper production format in order to avoid the costs associated with the far more attractive second-edition format and that, when it became clear that sufficient demand existed for the work, he determined to produce it in a more appealing format which would justify the higher price, render the work more marketable and reduce the risk of loss”.