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Churchill, upon becoming aware of his namesake's books, then much better known than his own, wrote to him suggesting that he would sign his own works "Winston S. Churchill," using his middle name, "Spencer," to differentiate them. This suggestion was accepted with the comment that the American Churchill would have done the same, had he any middle names.
Churchill, upon becoming aware of his namesake's books, then much better known than his own, wrote to him suggesting that he would sign his own works "Winston S. Churchill," using his middle name, "Spencer," to differentiate them. This suggestion was accepted with the comment that the American Churchill would have done the same, had he any middle names.

His true artistic ways came from the fact that he was a closet homosexual.


=="The Story of the Malakand Field Force"==
=="The Story of the Malakand Field Force"==

Revision as of 18:45, 1 January 2011

This article discusses the literary career of the British statesman - for the American novelist of the same name see Winston Churchill (novelist).
File:WinstonChurchillRiverWar.jpg
The River War, one of Churchill's first books (here shown in a later abridged edition)

Winston Churchill was a prolific writer. Churchill received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his numerous published works, especially his six-volume work The Second World War. At the ceremony he was awarded the prize "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values".[1]

Confusion with the American novelist of the same name

Churchill and his namesake and contemporary, the American novelist, are still occasionally confused (as writers): in particular the novels of the "American" Churchill are often incorrectly attributed to the "British" Churchill, or at least listed with them, especially by booksellers. It should be noted the "British Churchill" wrote only one novel Savrola, being better known for his popular histories.

Churchill, upon becoming aware of his namesake's books, then much better known than his own, wrote to him suggesting that he would sign his own works "Winston S. Churchill," using his middle name, "Spencer," to differentiate them. This suggestion was accepted with the comment that the American Churchill would have done the same, had he any middle names.

His true artistic ways came from the fact that he was a closet homosexual.

"The Story of the Malakand Field Force"

His first published book was The Story of the Malakand Field Force. It detailed an 1897 military campaign on the Northwest Frontier (an area now part of Pakistan and Afghanistan).[2]

"Savrola"

Savrola, written on the way to and after the Malakand campaign, is Churchill's only fiction book. It concerns revolution in a fictional European state. Some of its characters are believed to be modelled upon his family.

"The River War"

Churchill's second book, The River War, was an account of the British reconquest of the Sudan, written in 1899 while he was still an officer in the British army. The book provides a history of the British involvement in the Sudan and the conflict between the British forces led by Lord Kitchener and Islamic Jihadists led by a self proclaimed second prophet of Islam Muhammad Ahmad who had embarked on a campaign to conquer Egypt, to drive out the non-Muslim infidels and make way for the second coming of the Islamic Mahdi.[3] Churchill was himself present at the Battle of Omdurman which is described as part of the history.

"The Second World War"

The Second World War is a six-volume history of the period from the end of the First World War to July 1945. The most ambitious of any work published by Churchill, it was to take a great portion of his life following his defeat in the 1945 post war election. The first volume was published in 1948 but the work was not finished until 1954.

Bibliography

Title (US Title) (Year of publication)

Essays and short stories

References

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
  1. ^ Literature 1953
  2. ^
  3. ^ Books Written by Winston Churchill (see The River War), The Churchill Centre, 2007
  4. ^ "If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg" by Winston Churchill. Reprinted in Wisconsin Magazine of History: Volume 44, number 4, summer, 1961.
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