Letters for the Ages: The Private and Personal Letters of Winston Churchill

Description

Here are some of the best of Churchill's letters of a more personal and intimate nature, presented in chronological order, with a preface to each letter explaining the context. The recipients include a vast range of people, including his schoolmaster, his American grandmother and former President Eisenhower. They are taken from within the Churchill Archive in Cambridge, where there is a mass of Churchill's correspondence. Several of the letters included have never appeared in book form before. Winston Churchill has become an iconic figure greatly loved the world over, but maybe especially these days in the USA. Churchill understood the power of words and he used his writing to sustain and complement his political career, publishing over 40 books and receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953. This volume concentrates on his more intimate words. It seeks to show the private man behind the public figure and introduce fresh light on Churchill's character and personality by capturing the drama, immediacy, storms, depressions, passions and challenges of Churchill's extraordinary career. Churchill was neither a god nor a demon. Through these letters we see him as a human being with human emotions, frailties and a large ego. He was not always right. He held strong opinions and was often provocative. These letters take us into his world and allow us to follow the changes in his motivations and beliefs as he navigates his 90 years. There are intimate letters to his parents, his teacher at Harrow, Louis de Souza (Boer Secretary of State for War), his wife Clementine, Prime Minister Asquith, Lord Northcliffe, Anthony Eden, President Roosevelt, Eamon De Valera, the French Socialist Prime Minister Leon Blum and Charles De Gaulle. These are all letters of a personal nature and are most illuminating. They are enhanced by facsimiles of the letters and images which appear throughout the book, helping the reader to envisage a sense of Churchill in his most private moments.

Sir Winston S. Churchill (1874-1965) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on two occasions, from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Celebrated as one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century, he was also a gifted orator, statesman and historian. The author of more than 40 books, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 and in 1963 was made an honorary citizen of the United States. Allen Packwood is a Fellow of Churchill College and the Director of the Churchill Archive at Churchill College, Cambridge. The co-curator of Churchill and the Great Republic, a Library of Congress exhibition (2004), he has since organized many events and lectures. He has authored several articles, edited the recent Archives Centre guide, and lectures on Churchill. James Drake is a bibliophile, philanthropist and entrepreneur. He founded the Future Science Publishing Group.