"YOURS SINCERELY, WINSTON S. CHURCHILL".
An extraordinary catalogue of correspondence
San Diego, California: Churchill Book Collector, 2026. First edition. This catalogue features an extraordinary collection of correspondence by and from Winston S. Churchill, occasionally including additional accompanying documents, original franked envelopes, and related correspondence. The 31 items in this catalogue span 24,530 of Churchill’s 32,927 days, more than 67 of the 90 years Churchill lived, from age 19 to 87, from his as-yet-unproven youth to a time when Churchill passed into "a living national memorial" of the Nation, Empire, and free world he served.
The letters range from noteworthy and genuinely interesting to truly astonishing. Given that every item in the catalogue is unique, each item merited diligent research, informing context, and descriptive attention. We’ve offered important Churchill letters before, and expect to offer more in the future, but we cannot imagine ever again offering such a rich, curated, spanning trove of them all at once.
This explains the catalogue’s imposing length – 146 profusely illustrated pages printed on 100# gloss, coated, 8.5 x 11 inch paper, perfect bound in illustrated heavy card wraps, each copy tipping the scales at just over one pound. We provide images of the front and rear covers, the table of contents, and a few sample pages. The purchase price of $20 USD includes shipping to any U.S. address via USPS Ground Advantage. If you wish to use a different shipping method, or are shipping to a non-U.S. address, please specify your preferred shipping method with your order and we will add to your $20 charge the actual cost of post.
Explaining “extraordinary”
Herein, there are letters written from Churchill’s various homes – from his first bachelor flat to his beloved Chartwell. There are letters written from his many Cabinet offices – including the Colonial Office, the Home Office, the Admiralty, the Ministry of Munitions, the War Office, and, of course, 10 Downing Street. But Churchill also writes from India, from New York, from Cairo, from Blenheim Palace, and from the trenches of Flanders. There are letters Churchill explicitly marked “Private”. There are letters that are not so marked, but perhaps should have been.
Churchill writes to close friends and allies, to women he courted, to prime ministers past and present, to commanding officers, to T. E. Lawrence “of Arabia”, to his King, and to a number of relatives, including his brother and his only maternal female first cousin (“the nearest thing to a sister that Winston ever had”).
Across the thirty-one letters (and sometimes within them individually), there is an incredible range of tone, intention, and emotion. Churchill writes insightfully and incisively, mournfully and poignantly, desperately and pleadingly, confidently and stridently, playfully and humorously.
Churchill writes about his regard for his beloved nurse. He writes about the fellow officer who died in his place on the battlefield. He writes – startlingly candidly – about the nature of religion, the unfolding disaster of the Dardanelles, and the injustice of immigration restrictions. He writes letters of both deepest condolence and personal exhilaration. During the First World War, he writes to his brother regretting that he is not part of the fight, and then, not much later, reports as a soldier serving on the Western Front. He accepts the resignation of an iconic hero. He taunts his publisher. He picks a literary fight with a literary giant. He puts a former wartime prime minister in his place during his fraught first weeks as wartime prime minister. He exults in the liberation of France. He declines to see Joan of Arc burnt. He uses the weight of his office and personal prestige to defend the honor of a friend. He indulges in racehorses during his final years.
Why letters?
Today, we most often access Churchill’s life and legacy through the many published works he wrote and the many published works written about him. There’s no shortage of either. And we commend much of it to you.
But…
Correspondence – by its nature more ephemeral, candid, and more distinctly in and of the moment than published works – can convey a vital sense of the correspondent. Letters, particularly the kind of letters you’ll find in this catalogue, can impart a visceral sense of things that no acclaimed book or carefully crafted speech, however Churchillian in its mastery, can quite capture.
Moreover, letters speak to the complex compulsions that drive us to collect. For all the reasons stated above, letters address the curiosity and erudition that inspire and inform collectors. But collectors are not just amateur scholars; they are also trophy hunters. Letters offer the opportunity to have something not merely rare, but truly singular – the sole copy of a unique encapsulation of moment and mind, ambered with ink and paper.
A labor of love – and a lot of words
This is our most ambitious catalogue to date. That’s a way of saying that along with presenting a lot of words by Churchill, we’ve written a lot of words about those words. Each item in the catalogue receives more of an essay or monograph than mere description, including images not only of the document(s) being offered, but also of contextualizing people, places, and events.
We appreciate the opportunity to share this catalogue with you. Item #009038
Price: $20.00