A Great Experiment: an autobiography by Viscount Cecil (Lord Robert Cecil)

Lord Robert CECIL, first and last Viscount Cecil of Chelwood

Published by London: Jonathan Cape, 1941

About this Item

Late-20th-century quarter dark brown morocco, gilt, Cockerell marbled endpapers. Inscribed by the author, "To my wife from R.C. 1942 'le jour viendra'", and signed by him below his frontispiece portrait, with a real photograph of the Cecil drawing room mounted on a preliminary blank, and another (of Fridtjof Nansen? in a boat) mounted facing p. 130; some marginal markings and notes.

"It is generally agreed that, at the end of the present war, it is vital that some effective reconstruction of international order should be attempted. That any ambitious Power, dominated by a tyrannical Government, should be able to plunge the nations into war and inflict incalculable suffering on mankind, is intolerable. It was to prevent this that the Great Experiment of the League of Nations was carried out. It has done much admirable work, but it has failed in its main purpose. If we are to succeed better the next time, we must know what the League is, what it has done, where and why it has failed to keep the peace and what changes in it would improve its chances of success. This book is an attempt to answer these questions . . ."

The third son of the third Marquess of Salisbury, Lord Edgar Robert Algernon Gascoyne-Cecil (1864-1958) was MP for Marylebone East, 1906-10, and for Hitchin, 1911-23, then in 1923 created Viscount Cecil of Chelwood. He served in the Cabinet in the coalition government during the First World War and was much involved in establishing the League of Nations in 1920. In 1937 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his tireless effort in support of the League of Nations, disarmament and peace". He married in 1889 Lady Eleanor Lambton (1868-1959), daughter of the second Earl of Durham.

Seller Inventory # 35M100046

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Great Experiment: an autobiography by Viscount Cecil (Lord Robert Cecil)
• Publisher: London: Jonathan Cape
• Publication Date: 1941
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Inscribed by Author(s)