Description:

Churchill asks about his £250 advance from Putnam who will publish in America his bestseller about Germany's rapid armament build-up, While England Slept – two years later, 23-year-old John F. Kennedy examined the reasons for England's lack of preparedness in his own bestseller, Why England Slept

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL (1874-1965) Typed Letter Signed "Yours very truly / Winston S. Churchill," 1p, 8" x 10". Chartwell, Kent, September 14, 1938. Minor flaws. To his chief copy editor at George G. Harrap & Co., C.C. Wood. Fine condition.

In full, "I am sorry to hear that your account works out the wrong way. I understand that there is due £50- in advance on ‘Arms & the Covenant' in Sweden and £250- from Putnam." Handwritten: "Will you kindly let me know about this? Yours very truly, Winston S. Churchill."

Arms and the Covenant contains a collection of speeches given by Churchill from 1928 to 1938 criticizing British foreign policy and warning of the military threat of Germany. It was published in June 1938. The American version While England Slept, Churchill's speeches from 1932-1938, was published by Putnam on September 30, 1938. In 1940, 23-year-old John F. Kennedy had his college thesis published by Wilfred Funk, Inc. as Why England Slept.

In his "Introduction," Kennedy wrote, in part, "Why was England so poorly prepared for the war? This question has been asked again and again in America as we watched Hitler's mechanized juggernaut churn into Holland and Belgium, break through the unbreakable Maginot Line, and on towards Paris ... And after the retreat from Flanders, the one remark on every soldier's lips was, ‘If we only had had more planes.' Why was there such a superiority in German armored equipment? Why didn't the Allies have more planes? What had England been doing while Hitler was building up this tremendous German Army? ... About two years ago Winston Churchill published a book entitled ‘While England Slept.' This book is an attempt to explain why England slept...."

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