LOCKHART, Robert Hamilton Bruce (1887-1970). Comes the Reckoning, London, 1947, 8vo, original cloth. PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed, "To Anthony, from Bruce, in gratitude and admiration, R. H. Bruce Lockhart." With 7 other related books. (8)

LOCKHART, Robert Hamilton Bruce (1887-1970).  Comes the Reckoning. London: Putnam, 1947. 8vo (216 x 140mm). Half title (one leaf torn without significant loss, some marginal staining). Original dark blue cloth, the spine lettered in gilt (light stain to lower cover, without a dust-jacket). Provenance: Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (modern armorial bookplate loosely-inserted). FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, the title page inscribed, "To Anthony, from Bruce, in gratitude and admiration, R. H. Bruce Lockhart, London, 7 November, 1947." With 7 other related books, including 5 by the same author, all PRESENTATION COPIES, namely, Retreat from Glory (London, 1943, 8vo, original cloth, reprint, inscribed, "[?]Mrs Eden, with the author's best wishes, R. H. Bruce Lockhart, London, July 6, 1944"), My Europe (London, 1952, 8vo, original cloth, inscribed, "For Anthony Eden, in memory of my Danish birthday, R. H. Bruce Lockhart"), Your England (London, 1955, 8vo, cloth, inscribed, "For Anthony Eden with affectionate good wishes, R. H. Bruce Lockhart, Edinburgh, 11 July, 1955"; Friends, Foes and Foreigners (London, 1957, 8vo, cloth, inscribed, "For Anthony Eden, in friendship, R. Bruce Lockhart, London, 26th October, 1957"); with Edward Crankshaw's Russia and Britain (London, [c.1944], 8vo, cloth, inscribed not by the author but by R. H. Bruce Lockhart [possibly to Anthony or Clarissa Eden], "This is not a 'projection of Russia' but a reminder of what Britain did to help the Russians since the days when Ivan the Terrible wanted to marry Queen Elizabeth, R. H. Bruce Lockhart, May 11, 1944"; and with Edward Benes. Essays and Reflections on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday [including R. H. Bruce Lockhart's essay "Some Personal Memories" on p.80] (London, 1945, 8vo, extensively inscribed by Bruce Lockhart to Anthony Eden, concluding "... the book was to have appeared in May, 1944, for Benes's sixtieth birthday, but has only just been published. Perhaps it had to be approved by Moscow!"). Following a colourful and varied life in finance, journalism, rugby football and espionage,  Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart was appointed during World War II as first Chairman, and later Director-General, of the "Political Warfare Executive", the clandestine body set up to co-ordinate British propaganda against the Axis powers, where Eden had also prominently worked from its inception. Later, he would go on to become the British liaison officer to the Czechoslovak government when it was operating in exile from London under President Eduard Benes. (8)