Winston Churchill as writer

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The River War, one of Churchill's first books
The River War, one of Churchill's first books

Winston Churchill was a prolific writer. Churchill received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his numerous published words, 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]

Contents

[edit] 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.

[edit] "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]

[edit] "Savrola"

Savrola is Churchill's only fiction book, it was written on the way to and after the Malakand campaign. Characters in the novel are believed to have been modelled upon his family. It concerns revolution in a fictional european state.

[edit] "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 fanatical 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]

[edit] "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.

[edit] Bibliography

Title (US Title) (Year of publication)

  • The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898)
  • The River War (1899)
  • Savrola (1900, serialised 1899 and published USA 1899)
  • London to Ladysmith via Pretoria (1900)
  • Ian Hamilton’s March (1900)
  • Mr. Brodrick’s Army (1903)
  • Lord Randolph Churchill (1906)
  • For Free Trade (1906)
  • My African Journey (1908)
  • Liberalism and the Social Problem (1909)
  • The People’s Rights (1910)
  • The World Crisis (1923-1931)
  • My Early Life (1930)
  • India (1931)
  • Thoughts and Adventures (Amid These Storms) (1932)
  • Marlborough: His Life and Times (1933-1938)
  • Great Contemporaries (1937)
  • Arms and the Covenant or While England Slept: A Survey of World Affairs, 1932-1938 (1938)
  • Step by Step 1936-1939 (1939)
  • Addresses Delivered in the Year 1940 (1940)
  • Broadcast Addresses (1941)
  • Into Battle (Blood Sweat and Tears) (1941)
  • The Unrelenting Struggle (1942)
  • The End of the Beginning (1943)
  • Onwards to Victory (1944)
  • The Dawn of Liberation (1945)
  • Victory (1946)
  • Secret Sessions Speeches (1946)
  • War Speeches 1940-1945 (1946)
  • The Second World War (1948-1954)
  • The Sinews of Peace (1948)
  • Painting as a Pastime (1948)
  • Europe Unite (1950)
  • In the Balance (1951)
  • The War Speeches 1939-1945 (1952)
  • Stemming the Tide (1953)
  • A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956-1958)
  • The Unwritten Alliance (1961)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Literature 1953
  2. ^ The Story of the Malakand Field Force, available at Project Gutenberg.
  3. ^ Books Written by Winston Churchill (see The River War), The Churchill Centre, 2007
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Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
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