[Signed] ""With humble duty & in token of high regard, This record of long ago"" - Another World 1897-1917, an inscribed and signed presentation copy f

This presentation copy of the first edition of British Prime Minister Anthony Eden s memoir of his early life is inscribed, signed, and dated by Eden to Queen Elizabeth II s aunt, Princess Alice. In ten lines in blue ink on the front free endpaper Eden wrote: ""For | Her Royal Highness | Princess Alice | With humble duty | & in token of | high regard, | This record of long ago | from | Anthony Avon | April 1976"". Eden died nine months later, in January 1977.Condition is near fine in a fine dust jacket. The blue cloth binding is square, clean, bright, and tight with trivial hints of shelf wear and gently bruised upper corners. The contents are crisp and bright apart from modest spotting confined to the text block edges. The dust jacket is clean, bright, and complete, unclipped with no loss, tears, or appreciable wear. The jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover.Another World was Eden s last, and arguably most revealing, memoir. ""Eden'supbringing and gentlemanly reticence meant that he rarely referred to his formative experiences during the First World War, but its effects were profound, convincing him in the 1930s that a resolution and steadfastness in the face of the dictators was the policy best able to prevent the tragedy of a further world war. Only with the publication of his memoirAnother World, 1897 1917in 1976, the year before his death, did many first fully realize the intensity of these formative experiences for him, though even then he stressed the camaraderie in adversity as an enduring theme.""Robert Anthony Eden, First Earl of Avon (1897-1977) was destined to become one of the most eminent, qualified, and frustrated political lieutenants in British history. Educated at Eton and Christ Church Oxford, among his panoply of accomplishments, Eden served on the western front from 1915-1918 and was awarded the Military Cross. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament from 1923-1957. In perhaps his finest hour, Eden famously resigned his Foreign Secretary post in the British Cabinet on 20 February 1938 in protest of the Government's appeasement policies. When Churchill became wartime Prime Minister in May 1940, Eden returned to power and served critical leadership roles, Foreign Secretary among them, throughout the War. It seemed reasonable to expect that, after the War, Eden would succeed Churchill as Leader of the Opposition and eventually become prime minister when the Conservatives returned to majority. But such were Churchill s stature and inclinations that Eden was not given the reins until Churchill resigned his second and final premiership in April 1955. Eden's long-delayed premiership proved brief and fraught with challenge, dominated by the Suez Crisis and his own ill health, both of which forced his resignation in January 1957. Alice, Princess, Duchess of Gloucester (1901-2004) was born Lady Alice Cristabel Montagu-Douglas-Scott. In 1935 she married Prince Henry, first Duke of Gloucester (1900-1974), third son of George V and soon to be regent apparent with the enthronement of King George VI. During the Second World War Princess Alice took on ""greatly extended responsibilities: she was already commandant of theSt John's Ambulance Association; now she became also president of the hospital supply board of theRed Cross. In 1940 she was appointed air chief commandant of theWomen's Auxiliary Air Force. She travelled widely around the country, including a visit to Coventry two days after the devastating blitz."" At the end of the War, she accompanied her husband to Australia during his term as Governor-General. As a young woman, she had been an intrepid traveler and ""she was happiest when fishing and hunting on the Dumfriesshire moors."" Later, ""her life began increasingly to centre on Barnwell Manor, the Northamptonshire house that theGloucestershad bought in 1938."" She died in 2004 ""at the age of 102, the oldest member of the royal family in recorded history.""References: ODNB