Great Contemporaries

Winston S. Churchill

• Publisher: RosettaBooks
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780795349676
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

Insightful biographical sketches of major historical figures of the twentieth century, from the incomparable British statesman. Winston S.Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on the strength of "his mastery of historical and biographical description." Nowhere is that mastery more evident than in Great Contemporaries —which features Churchill's profiles of many of the major figures of his time. These short biographies cover political and cultural personalities ranging from Franklin D.Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Lawrence of Arabia, and Leon Trotsky to Charlie Chaplin, H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, and George Bernard Shaw. This edition includes five previously uncollected essays and a number of photographs, plus an enlightening introduction and annotations by noted Churchill scholar James W.Muller. Written in the decade before Churchill became prime minister, these essays focus on the challenges of statecraft at a time when the democratic revolution was toppling older regimes based on tradition and aristocratic privilege. Churchill's keen observations take on new importance in our own age of roiling political change. Ultimately, Great Contemporaries provides fascinating insight into these subjects as Churchill approaches them with a measuring eye, finding their limitations at least as revealing as their merits.

Notes

An initial note for each essay provides references to periodicals or pamphlets in which the essay was published before it appeared in Great Contemporaries, and in some cases to later reprints. In preparing these notes, I have relied on Ronald I. Cohen, Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill, 3 vols. (London: Thoemmes, 2006). References to “Cohen” in these notes refer to this bibliography. Several of these notes also describe how essays included in the book were composed.

Some essays were revised for publication in Great Contemporaries, and several essays were added to or subtracted from the first edition in subsequent editions. Except where its initial note states otherwise, an essay appears in all editions of Great Contemporaries, including the first. Significant differences in the texts of various editions are indicated below. Emphasis in quotations from Churchill’s essays (italic, boldfaced, or underlined text) is in the published version quoted.

Preface

In the second edition of Great Contemporaries (1938), which added four brief lives to the original twenty-one, the preface appeared unaltered from the first edition (1937), with the same date of August 13, 1937, at the end. In some later editions of the book, however, beginning in 1939, an additional paragraph was added at the end of the preface: “Since I wrote the preceding paragraphs for the original 1937 edition a further reprint of the book has been called for and I have taken the opportunity of adding four additional biographies. These concern Lord Fisher, Charles Stewart Parnell, Lord Baden-Powell and Franklin D. Roosevelt.”

The Earl of Rosebery

“The Earl of Rosebery,” which Churchill considered “the best study in the book” (CHAR 8/558/72), was first published as “Lord Rosebery” in Nash’s—Pall Mall 84 no. 437 (October 1929): 10–13 [Cohen C326], with four subheads: “The story of the One Man who foresaw the War and dared to proclaim his prophecy,” “His was the voice crying in the wilderness—if his colleagues had listened—What then?” “Everyone is fed up with War, the idea is odious to men of every nation, class and temperament,” and “In Rosebery’s time all the issues were invested with a false glamour and shrouded in opaque ignorance.”

5	… the regard and confidence of a large section of the Radical masses: Nash’s—Pall Mall does not have “a large section of.”
5–6	… when Mr. Balfour’s fall in 1905 was approaching, … : Nash’s—Pall Mall has rather, “in the advent of Mr. Balfour’s fall in 1905, …”
6	… that overtures would be useless: In Nash’s—Pall Mall this sentence is followed by another: “The new Liberal Administration was formed without him and sailed forth upon its eventful voyage into the greatest storm that ever blew.”
6	… lighted by the refinements of profound and astonishingly wide-ranging literary knowledge, … : Nash’s—Pall Mall has “vast” rather than “profound.”
6	… and companioned by his children and his grandchildren: Nash’s—Pall Mall has rather, “… and companioned by a tiny beloved granddaughter.”
6	… not only for the sake of their high merit, but at least as much for their limitations: Nash’s—Pall Mall has “very high” rather than “high” and “marked limitations” rather than “limitations.”
8	… on long visits to common friends … : Nash’s—Pall Mall has “mutual” rather than “common.”
8	… and was in those days abhorrent to party machines: Nash’s—Pall Mall has “is” rather than “was in those days.”
8	… he took the trouble to write a considerable appreciation … : Nash’s—Pall Mall has “an appreciation” rather than “a considerable appreciation.”
9	… it appeared as the widely-read and deeply-interesting monograph … : Nash’s—Pall Mall has “well-known” rather than “widely-read.”
9	… to rankle in my illustrious friend: Nash’s—Pall Mall has “with” rather than “in.”
9	… did not take my recalcitrance amiss: Nash’s—Pall Mall has “objections” rather than “recalcitrance.”
9	… for my filial prudery: Nash’s—Pall Mall does not have this phrase.
9	It is difficult to convey the pleasure … : Nash’s—Pall Mall does not have this paragraph.
9	Hardest of all is it to revive the impression … : Nash’s—Pall Mall does not have this sentence.
9	His life was set in an atmosphere of tradition: In Nash’s—Pall Mall this sentence is followed by another: “The historic sense was strongly present in his mind.”
9	He seemed to be attended by Learning and History, … : Nash’s—Pall Mall does not have this sentence.
10	They were very different from the bustling experience … : Nash’s—Pall Mall has “rough and tumble” rather than “bustling experience.”
10	… its hostile little meetings, its jeering throng, … : Nash’s—Pall Mall has “bleak, hostile” rather than “hostile” and “throngs outside” rather than “throng.”
10	Rosebery’s Eton tutor in something of a spirit of prophecy said of him … : Nash’s—Pall Mall has rather, “A critic of Rosebery’s career said of him in his lifetime….”
11	This was not true in the sense in which the phrase … : Nash’s—Pall Mall does not have this sentence or the one after it.
11	… the inevitable acquiescence in inferior solutions, … : Nash’s—Pall Mall has “acceptance of” rather than “acquiescence in.”
11	… to sustain their progress and welfare: Nash’s—Pall Mall has rather, “… to defend their liberties and sustain their progress and welfare.”
11	But actually to handle them, to wrestle with, them, … : Neither Nash’s—Pall Mall nor the first edition of Great Contemporaries (1937) has this awkward comma between “with” and “them.”
11	… with whom he was on terms of intimate acquaintance and correspondence, … : Nash’s—Pall Mall does not have this phrase.
11–12	… the elegant, glittering, imposing trappings faded … : Nash’s—Pall Mall has “trappings and conditions” rather than simply “trappings.”
12	… between himself and the Radical electorate: Nash’s—Pall Mall does not have this phrase.
12	Let us test these general comments … : Nash’s—Pall Mall does not have this paragraph or the twelve paragraphs which follow it.
19	In his arresting speech at Chesterfield in December, 1901, … : The first edition of Great Contemporaries (1937) has “1902 …” [sic] rather than “December, 1901, …”
20	… and what they had fought about, … : Nash’s—Pall Mall does not have “had.”
20	… under the smooth surface of modernism: Nash’s—Pall Mall has “the nineteenth century” rather than “modernism.”
20	He knew with pregnant conviction much that other leading men … : Nash’s—Pall Mall has “what” rather than “much that.”
20	… after the Peace Conference: Nash’s—Pall Mall has “had begun” after “Peace Conference.”
20	…—then unborn—… : Nash’s—Pall Mall does not have this phrase.
21	His heart responded instinctively … : Nash’s—Pall Mall has “heartbeats” rather than “heart,” and follows this sentence with another passage: Now of course it is all much better, and everything is settled by the League of Nations, the Kellogg Pact, and open diplomacy, so there never will be any danger any more; besides, everyone is fed up with war, and the idea of its return is odious to men of every nation, of every class, of every temperament. Even the s...