The Library of the late Robert P. Hastings
To be sold on behalf of
The Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States
Introduction by Harold Epstein
To Robert P. Hastings, as to so many others, Winston Churchill was a hero, except that Hastings came to recognise his greatness earlier than most.
Well before the Second World War catapulted Churchill into the leadership of Britain and the Free World, Hastings, captivated by his career and personality, began to collect his writings and also writings in which he figured. Over the ensuing five decades, he devoted a great deal of time and energy -- and a respectable sum of money -- to amassing a Library of more than one thousand volumes, and a hoard of Churchilliana consisting of signed letters, newspaper and magazine articles, cartoons, pictures and prints, photographs, busts, recordings, memorial stamps and other commemorative items.
Bob Hastings was a prominent Los Angeles attorney, and a leader of many educational, cultural and civic organizations. A slightly built man, always immaculately attired, unfailingly good humoured and sometimes irreverent, with a gift for enthusiasm, he enjoyed immensely the countless hours he spent studying and cataloguing his collection. He delighted in corresponding with other collectors and with authors, bibliographers and dealers around the world. Nothing gave him greater pleasure than to show visitors to his charming house in Pasadena, California, the collection which covered most of its walls.
Hastings was invited to join the Board of Trustees of the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States, shortly after it was established in 1959 by American friends and admirers of Sir Winston in order to encourage the spirit of Anglo-American cooperation he had epitomised. He served with dedication for almost thirty-five years, giving his support -- moral and material -- to all the Foundation's activities.
He took particular pride in the Churchill Fellowship Programme which provided support to American professors invited to hold fellowships at Churchill College. The calibre of these Fellows is best indicated by the fact that eight won the Nobel Prize, six subsequent to their tenure as Fellows. He participated vigorously in the Foundation's campaign to raise American funds to build and help maintain the Archives Centre at Churchill College where the papers of Sir Winston and many of his contemporaries are housed and where soon the papers of Lady Thatcher will be deposited. Most of all, he was a fervent champion and indefatigable advocate of the Churchill Scholarship Programme created to enable American students of exceptional ability and promise to do graduate work in engineering, mathematics and science at Churchill College, Cambridge University. The College, founded by Sir Winston and now Britain's national memorial to him, is dedicated to teaching and research in science and technology, in keeping with Churchill's conviction that leadership in these fields was essential to meet the challenges and opportunities of the modern age.
Bob Hastings died last year at the age of 86. Among the satisfactions of his uncommonly full life were his part in the governance of the Winston Churchill Foundation and in developing the Churchill Scholarship Programme; he died knowing that his collection of Churchilliana would ultimately benefit both.
Books by Sir Winston Churchill
Arms and the Covenant, London: George Harrap, 1938, 8°, FIRST EDITION, half tone portrait, original dark blue cloth gilt, dust-jacket (spine torn with slight loss, lightly stained, a few repairs) [Woods A44(a): "5,000 copies"]; Step by Step 1936-39, London: Thornton Butterworth, 1939, 8°, FIRST EDITION, original green cloth gilt [Woods A45: "7,500 copies"]. With 20 other wartime works in 26 volumes including first editions of the War Speech series, Into Battle (London, 1941 [Woods A66(a)]), The Unrelenting Struggle (London, 1942 [Woods A89]), The End of the Beginning (London, 1943 [Woods A94]), Onwards to Victory (London, 1944 [Woods A101]), The Dawn of Liberation (London, 1945 [Woods A107], 2 copies), Victory (London, 1946 [Woods A112]) and Secret Session Speeches (London, 1946 [Woods A114]). (28)
Details
Arms and the Covenant, London: George Harrap, 1938, 8°, FIRST EDITION, half tone portrait, original dark blue cloth gilt, dust-jacket (spine torn with slight loss, lightly stained, a few repairs) [Woods A44(a): "5,000 copies"]; Step by Step 1936-39, London: Thornton Butterworth, 1939, 8°, FIRST EDITION, original green cloth gilt [Woods A45: "7,500 copies"]. With 20 other wartime works in 26 volumes including first editions of the War Speech series, Into Battle (London, 1941 [Woods A66(a)]), The Unrelenting Struggle (London, 1942 [Woods A89]), The End of the Beginning (London, 1943 [Woods A94]), Onwards to Victory (London, 1944 [Woods A101]), The Dawn of Liberation (London, 1945 [Woods A107], 2 copies), Victory (London, 1946 [Woods A112]) and Secret Session Speeches (London, 1946 [Woods A114]). (28)