BENES, Eduard (1884-1948). Democracy. Today and Tomorrow, London, 1939, 8vo, buckram. FIRST EDITION, IMPORTANT PRESENTATION COPY, SPARSELY ANNOTATED AND HIGHLIGHTED IN PENCIL BY ANTHONY EDEN.

BENES, Eduard [or Edvard] (1884-1948).  Democracy. Today and Tomorrow. London: Macmillan & Co., Limited, 1939. 8vo (204 x 135mm). Half title (some creasing to corners at the end). Original blue buckram, spine lettered in gilt (without the dust-jacket). Provenance: Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (modern armorial bookplate loosely-inserted). FIRST EDITION, IMPORTANT PRESENTATION COPY, the half title inscribed, "To my dear friend, H. E. Anthony Eden, with sincere thanks and best wishes, Eduard Benes, Nov. 1st 1939." SPARSELY ANNOTATED AND HIGHLIGHTED IN PENCIL BY ANTHONY EDEN. For example, on p.16 (commenting on the printed passage 'modern democracy in its present and most advanced stage must try to apply its principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity also to the social and economic fields' [author's italics]), Eden writes: "Optimistic"; and on p.65: "Communism helped weaken democracy. Nazi fascism [illegible words] using its attacks on democracy for its own purposes, particularly until [illegible words])"; and with Eden's pencil notes indicating significant page numbers in pencil on the rear endpaper. Eduard Benes served as President of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1948. During World War II he led the Czech Government in exile from London. His first resignation in 1938 came as a result of the Munich Agreement and the resulting German occupation of Czechoslovakia; his second, in 1948, following the communist coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948. The book was inscribed to Anthony Eden less than a month after the outbreak of World War II.