Beschreibung:

CHURCHILL, Winston S. An archive of 3 typed letters signed ("Winston S. Churchill"), 1 signed dinner program ("Winston S. Churchill"), a signed check ("Winston S. Churchill"), never cashed, and a printed telegram (unsigned). All to Col. Frank W. Clarke, 1945-1948, dealing with Churchill's 1946 visit to the U.S. and the impact of his famous "Iron Curtain" speech. Together 20 pages, 4to and folio .
CHURCHILL, Winston S. An archive of 3 typed letters signed ("Winston S. Churchill"), 1 signed dinner program ("Winston S. Churchill"), a signed check ("Winston S. Churchill"), never cashed, and a printed telegram (unsigned). All to Col. Frank W. Clarke, 1945-1948, dealing with Churchill's 1946 visit to the U.S. and the impact of his famous "Iron Curtain" speech. Together 20 pages, 4to and folio . "FULTON HAS TURNED OUT TO BE A SIGNPOST WHICH HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE HAVE FOLLOWED" "I HOPE THIS IS SO AND THAT ALL WILL BE WELL." An intimate look at Churchill's preparations for his famous "Iron Curtain" speech, told through these letters to his host, Canadian military officer Col. Frank W. Clarke, who kept a residence in Miami Beach, Florida which he made available to the Churchills. On 22 November 1945, Churchill telegrams Clarke: "The President has asked me to visit Westminster University, Missouri, which is his home state, and deliver an address. He proposes himself to be present and introduce me. This will obviously be a public appearance of considerable importance..." Churchill, Clementine and daughter Sarah arrived in Florida in early January for several weeks in the sun and surf of Miami before heading to Fulton, Missouri, where Churchill uttered the words that defined the new cold war: "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe..." The speech provoked a furious reaction from Moscow and praise in the West. Ten days later he was feted at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, and delivered a second speech on the same theme (the archive contains A SIGNED DINNER PROGRAM from that event). On 20 March 1946 he sends Clarke a five-hundred pound sterling check for expenses incurred on the visit. But on 26 March, writing at sea with John Meynard Keynes as his traveling companion, Churchill asks him to destroy the check (Clarke didn't) and proudly remarks on the impact of his words: "I had a wireless message from Randolph that it was widely held in America that the improved Russian behavior was largely due to my two speeches. I hope this is so and that all will be well." Two years later (28 March 1948), he is still waxing warm in the glow of his Fulton triumph: "I have very agreeable memories of those days; and after all Fulton has turned out to be a signpost which hundreds of millions of people have followed." A remarkable archive from a pivotal moment in Churchill's career, and in postwar history. Together 6 items . (6)