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britannica - americana
CHURCHILL WINSTON
(1874-1965).
29 signed letters, signed « Winston S. Churchill », with a few
autograph addenda, 1934-1951, to A.G. WATERS editor of
News of the World
, or other employees of the newspaper;
approximately 34 pages, most in-4 format, on embossed
letterhead; in English.
15 000 / 20 000 €
A remarkable archive of Churchill’s long relationship with
News of the
World
which provided a much-needed source of literary income
during the early 1930s and turned into an important platform for his
warnings against Nazi Germany later in the decade.
Initially contracted to write a series on “Great Men I have Known”,
Churchill steadily expanded into great figures from the Bible and
“Greatest Men of All Time”. His thumbnail sketch for the latter series
(7 April 1936) is amusingly succinct: “Confucius. Explains China
[...] Mahomet. Splendid action - the counter-drive to Christianity
Alcibiades. Alexander. Great Greeks [...]”. - 13 November 1936:
“With regard to the Biblical series I should be glad if this could be
provisionally settled in writing. My political affairs are still in the
uncertainty which lapped them last year, and it would be convenient
to me to have an agreement made as before”. In December 1937,
he joked that with commitments to the paper stretching into 1941,
“I shall certainly expect an invitation to the annual outing of the
staff”. - Starting in 1938, the Nazi threat dominates the letters: “[...]
There is at the present time an almost total absence of defence, apart
from the R.A.F., for our cities and vulnerable points. We have not got
a dozen modem anti-aircraft guns in the country. The 3.7 guns which
are modem, are now trickling out in small numbers every month, but
the total order is itself on a scale hopelessly below our requirements.
The Germans have actually between 3,000 and 4,000 modem anti-
aircraft guns, all made since 1933 [..j” (June 5, 1938). - On 28 April 1939
he suggests an article on “Air Raids and the Population”. Once war
breaks out he writes (20 September 1939): “Emsley Carr has written to
me that my contract with the News of the World can be suspended
until the end of the war [..] What has happened to the three scientific
articles? I have not had time to look at the paper. If they have already
been published, well and good. If not would you mind stating that
they were written by me before I took office. You will understand that
I am giving my whole time to my work [..]”. - “[...] During the last three
weeks I have not had a minute to think of anything but my task. They
are the longest three weeks I have ever lived [...]” (24 Sept. 1939). - The
archive also contains his summation of how the RAF saved England
in 1940: “[...] the ‘Battle of Britain’ was won because when the enemy
Bombers came by daylight [...] our Fighters were strong enough to
beat the escorts and inflict decisive losses upon the Bombers” (30
March 1941). In the final letter in the archive (3 Nov. 1951) he tells A.
G. Waters: “I look forward to many more years of friendly relations
with you and the News of the World”.
Accompanied by
a list of “Great Men of All Time” (1 and 1/4 pp.),
one list of “News of the World” (1 p.), and one newspaper clipping.