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Winston Churchill Superb TLS Showing His Attention to Detail
Winston Churchill Superb TLS Showing His Attention to Detail
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Description:

Churchill Winston



Winston Churchill Superb TLS Showing His Attention to Detail



“The great thing is to have a principle and stick to it.”



In this letter to the chief copy editor for his publishers, Winston Churchill sends more chapters for Volume III of the four-volume biography of his ancestor, John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722). He also discusses the details of typography, including the modernization of historical letters, the use of hyphens, and spelling out numbers. George G. Harrap & Company published Volume III later in 1936. A penciled list of the titles of Chapters VII to XXIII appears in the top margin of the first page.



In discussing the use of hyphens, Churchill references the practices of British historian Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), whose "The History of England from the Accession of James the Second" (5 vols., 1848) was famous for its impressive prose.



Typed letter signed by Winston Churchill with several corrections in Churchill's hand, to Charles C. Wood, August 3, 1936.  2 pp., 8" x 10", on “Chartwell” stationery.  Expected folds; paper clip rust stain at top edge; otherwise very good.



Excerpts



“I send you now everything except the last five chapters. Mr. Deakin will be with you tomorrow. There are a number of points for him marked by me from ‘The Jacobite Raid’ chapter onwards, nor are Mr. Marsh’s corrections in from that point. Some of these chapters are a good deal pulled about, and if you think fit you had better put them into slip again, keeping enough of the earlier chapters to go on continuously with the page proofing. Chapter 19 about Ghent and Bruges is now split in two, altering the numbers thereafter. I do not feel like a lengthy preface, nor is it worth your while to await it. I will, however, do it next, before I finish the last chapter, if you wish.”



“Would you mind asking your proof readers to put down quite clearly their rule about hyphened words. I do not like Mr. Marsh’s very full use of hyphens, but what rule do you follow? Macaulay frequently runs the words together without a hyphen, e.g. ‘panic stricken.’ The great thing is to have a principle and stick to it.”



“With regard to numbers, I think the following will work: viz. When there is a computation of armies in battalions, squadrons, etc. numerals should be used. When there are broken numbers, e.g. 7,500 ditto.  When numerals are used in some old quoted letter " [ditto]. Otherwise it is better to spell. In sending these proofs to the printers, please enforce this system. I find we are in practise spelling almost everything and I must say it runs better except as mentioned.”



Churchill makes several corrections throughout, and while signing writes, "I do not like the high punctuation : , however; indeed, etc."



Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was born to a British father and American mother at his family’s ancestral home in Oxfordshire, England. After education at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, Churchill served as an army officer in India and Africa and became an accomplished writer. Over a political career that spanned fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions, including First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911 to 1915 and again from 1939 to 1940. In 1922, Churchill bought the manor house of Chartwell in Kent, and he later spent most of his retirement there. During the 1930s, he took the lead in warning against Nazi Germany’s hostile ambitions. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. His speeches inspired British resistance to Nazi Germany, especially in 1940-1941, when the United Kingdom stood almost alone against Adolf Hitler. After suffering a serious stroke in 1953, he retired from political office in 1955. In 1963, he became the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States.



Charles C. Wood (1875-1959) joined the publishing firm of George G. Harrap & Co., Ltd., in 1912. He served as chief copy editor on Churchill’s monumental biography, "Marlborough: His Life and Times", published in four volumes between 1933 and 1938.  In 1948, Churchill hired the retired Wood to proofread his massive multi-volume work, "The Second World War". Wood joined Churchill’s staff of secretaries, research assistants, and advisors. Wood became “an essential member of the team and no error escaped his eye.” Wood was as abrasive as Churchill was demanding, and Churchill once called Wood “indefatigable, interminable, intolerable.” The process of proofreading both "The Second World War" and "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples" was called “wooding.”



This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.



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