"A Great Dream" in Cosmopolitan, December 1926, an article about Churchill's famously daring 1899 escape from captivity during the Boer War that made him a celebrity and helped launch his political career.
New York: The International Magazine Company, 1926. Periodical. This article is published in Cosmopolitan, Vol. LXXXI, No.6, p.15 contains part of the story of Churchill's captivity by the Boers, which would later be told more fully in My Early Life (published 1930), Chapter XX, "In Durance Vile". Specifically, the story told is of an aborted plan of escape for Churchill and his fellow British officers. The scheme of the junior officers was prudently quashed by the senior British officers - and Churchill admits "I shall certainly not claim that they were wrong."
The full page article features an image of Churchill in the uniform of the South African Light Horse. Churchill would ultimately, of course, escape alone - a daring feat that helped launch his fame and political career. This original magazine publication is in very good condition. The covers are clean, bright, and firmly attached with no tears or losses. The spine remains fully intact, with just slight wear at the ends. The contents are clean and bright with no markings, spotting, or toning.
In October 1899, the second Boer War erupted between the descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa and the British. Churchill, an itinerant, adventure-seeking young cavalry officer and war correspondent, swiftly found himself in South Africa with the 21st Lancers and an assignment as press correspondent to the Morning Post. Not long after, on 15 November 1899, Churchill was captured during a Boer ambush of an armored train. His daring and dramatic escape less than a month later made him a celebrity and helped launch his political career.
Following Churchill’s escape from the State Model School in Pretoria, the Boers offered a reward for his capture “dead or alive”. Churchill was sheltered by John Howard at the Transvaal and Delagoa Bay Collieries, seventy-five miles east of Pretoria near the town of Witbank. After spending several days hiding in the mines, Churchill was smuggled aboard a train carrying a consignment of bales of wool whose owner, Charles Burnham, came along and helped protect Churchill’s secrecy. Eventually the train carried Churchill to Lourenco Marques in Portuguese East Africa. From there Churchill boarded the steamer ship Indura, which sailed for Durban.
Churchill returned to England from South Africa in July 1900 and spent the summer campaigning hard in Oldham. Churchill had lost the Oldham by-election – his first attempt at Parliament – in July 1899. Since then, as Arthur Balfour (who became Prime Minister in 1902) put it in a 30 August 1900 letter, the young Churchill had had “fresh opportunities - admirably taken advantage of – for shewing the public of what stuff you are made.” Indeed; Churchill won his first seat in Parliament on 1 October 1900 in the so-called "khaki election".
Originally, Churchill had planned to escape with some compatriots. When events failed to conform to plan, Churchill escaped alone, causing some resentment and calumny. Hence, perhaps, this conciliatory concession in this article about senior officers opposing an escape plan: "I shall certainly not claim that they were wrong."
Reference: Cohen C309a; Woods C126. Item #008985
Price: $80.00