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Auction archive: Lot number 2

CHURCHILL, Winston S (1874-1965) Archive of 16 letters ALS a...

Estimate
US$20,000 - US$30,000
Price realised:
US$17,500
Auction archive: Lot number 2

CHURCHILL, Winston S (1874-1965) Archive of 16 letters ALS a...

Estimate
US$20,000 - US$30,000
Price realised:
US$17,500
Beschreibung:

CHURCHILL, Winston S. (1874-1965). Archive of 16 letters ALS and TLS (signed "Winston," "Winston S. Churchill," "Winston S.C." or "W.") with 27 additional letters from Churchill family members (including Clementine Churchill and Jack Churchill), plus clippings and photos compiled by Churchill's cousin, Shane Leslie, 1900-1960. Together 43 letters, all tipped or laid down in two scrap books. In a half-morocco slipcase.
CHURCHILL, Winston S. (1874-1965). Archive of 16 letters ALS and TLS (signed "Winston," "Winston S. Churchill," "Winston S.C." or "W.") with 27 additional letters from Churchill family members (including Clementine Churchill and Jack Churchill), plus clippings and photos compiled by Churchill's cousin, Shane Leslie, 1900-1960. Together 43 letters, all tipped or laid down in two scrap books. In a half-morocco slipcase. "I DO NOT THINK IT WOULD BE SUITABLE FOR ME TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE SONS OF THE REVOLUTION, AS WE WERE EVIDENTLY ON BOTH SIDES THEN" An entertaining and revealing archive of Churchill letters, lovingly compiled by Churchill's cousin, Shane Leslie, daughter of his mother's sister, Leonie Jerome Leslie. The letters touch on family engagements, the death in battle of Churchill's cousin Norman Leslie in 1914, and even Churchill's uneasiness about an honorary membership in an organization celebrating the American Revolution! On 24 October 1914, he tries to console his Aunt Leonie after Norman's death:"The ever widening conflagration of this war deserves all that is precious: and the end is far away. It is a big enough war about a big enough cause for anyone to go out on. And those who flash away in the conflict doing their duty in good company are not the most unhappy...We must at all costs win. Victory is a better boon than life, & without it life wd be unendurable. The British has in a few weeks of war revived before the whole world the glories of Agincourt, & Blenheim & Waterloo, and in this Norman has played his part..." Thirty years later, in America in 1946 to deliver his famous "Iron Curtain" speech, Churchill declines an invitation to join an American patriotic group: "I do not think it would be suitable for me to become a member of the Sons of the Revolution, as we were evidently on both sides then" (18 Feb. 1946). There are letters from Churchill's brother Jack, his wife Clementine, various Leslie family members, and some 70-pages of what Shane Leslie calls "Winstoniana," transcriptions (in Leslie's hand) of Churchill letters "collected out of family archives." Leslie also records some of Winston's biting political comments, such as this 1956 reaction to the Suez debacle: "This would never have happened if Eisenhower had been alive ."

Auction archive: Lot number 2
Auction:
Datum:
7 Dec 2012
Auction house:
Christie's
7 December 2012, New York, Rockefeller Center
Beschreibung:

CHURCHILL, Winston S. (1874-1965). Archive of 16 letters ALS and TLS (signed "Winston," "Winston S. Churchill," "Winston S.C." or "W.") with 27 additional letters from Churchill family members (including Clementine Churchill and Jack Churchill), plus clippings and photos compiled by Churchill's cousin, Shane Leslie, 1900-1960. Together 43 letters, all tipped or laid down in two scrap books. In a half-morocco slipcase.
CHURCHILL, Winston S. (1874-1965). Archive of 16 letters ALS and TLS (signed "Winston," "Winston S. Churchill," "Winston S.C." or "W.") with 27 additional letters from Churchill family members (including Clementine Churchill and Jack Churchill), plus clippings and photos compiled by Churchill's cousin, Shane Leslie, 1900-1960. Together 43 letters, all tipped or laid down in two scrap books. In a half-morocco slipcase. "I DO NOT THINK IT WOULD BE SUITABLE FOR ME TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE SONS OF THE REVOLUTION, AS WE WERE EVIDENTLY ON BOTH SIDES THEN" An entertaining and revealing archive of Churchill letters, lovingly compiled by Churchill's cousin, Shane Leslie, daughter of his mother's sister, Leonie Jerome Leslie. The letters touch on family engagements, the death in battle of Churchill's cousin Norman Leslie in 1914, and even Churchill's uneasiness about an honorary membership in an organization celebrating the American Revolution! On 24 October 1914, he tries to console his Aunt Leonie after Norman's death:"The ever widening conflagration of this war deserves all that is precious: and the end is far away. It is a big enough war about a big enough cause for anyone to go out on. And those who flash away in the conflict doing their duty in good company are not the most unhappy...We must at all costs win. Victory is a better boon than life, & without it life wd be unendurable. The British has in a few weeks of war revived before the whole world the glories of Agincourt, & Blenheim & Waterloo, and in this Norman has played his part..." Thirty years later, in America in 1946 to deliver his famous "Iron Curtain" speech, Churchill declines an invitation to join an American patriotic group: "I do not think it would be suitable for me to become a member of the Sons of the Revolution, as we were evidently on both sides then" (18 Feb. 1946). There are letters from Churchill's brother Jack, his wife Clementine, various Leslie family members, and some 70-pages of what Shane Leslie calls "Winstoniana," transcriptions (in Leslie's hand) of Churchill letters "collected out of family archives." Leslie also records some of Winston's biting political comments, such as this 1956 reaction to the Suez debacle: "This would never have happened if Eisenhower had been alive ."

Auction archive: Lot number 2
Auction:
Datum:
7 Dec 2012
Auction house:
Christie's
7 December 2012, New York, Rockefeller Center
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