History as an Art Signed by Bertrand Russell first edition 1954

History as an Art. Hermon Ould Memorial Lecture. 
Ashford: The Hand and Flower Press, 1954
 
Thin 8vo., navy publisher’s cloth, lettered in gilt to upper board; pp. [iv], 23, [i]; a lovely example, very minor rubbing to edges and a couple of tiny white spots to lower board; internally a couple of creases and very unobtrusive spots, with pencil price rubbed out to ffep, resulting in a touch of abrasion to paper stock; near-fine. 
 
First edition, signed by the author to the half title. 
 
Hermon Ould was a poet and dramatist who served as the first secretary of the English Centre, and as the international secretary and later president of PEN International, an organisation founded in 1921 to emphasise the importance of Literature and freedom of expression in world culture. During this time, it grew from a small dining club for writers into an international institution which had to navigate many political and social difficulties, including differing factions and opinions which appeared during the Second World War. When Ould passed away in September 1951, an Annual Lecture was announced to commemorate his life, with the first given in 1953 and the second appearing here, with an exposition by the famed Philosopher Bertrand Russell on the subject of History. 
 
Russell was already, at the time the speech was given, a decorated academic. In 1949 he had been awarded the Order of Merit from the King, and the following year he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He had also, in 1946, published A History of Western Philosophy, the book for which he is perhaps best known for today, and which is still used widely by Philosophy students the world over. Indeed, ideas of History had dominated his work for several years; one of his earliest contributions On History had appeared as early as 1903 and later, Understanding History had been published in 1958. Greatly interested in History as a young man, Russell believed that the subject should not only be studied by academics, but that it should be ‘an essential part of the furniture’ for any educated mind. “The man whose interests are governed by the short span between his birth and death”, he wrote in one contribution, “has myopic vision and limitation of outlook. On the other hand, one with a sense of history can foresee the tragedy of repeated blunders and face with stoic endurance the follies of the present.”
 
A particularly clean example of this fascinating work, and rare signed.