The Works of WSC
A guide to the Churchill canon
The CanonIn 1937 the frenetic literary activity which engulfed Chartwell during the 'Wilderness Years' was at its peak. Churchill had two major works in progress (Marlborough and A History of the English Speaking Peoples) in addition to the continued outpouring of weekly and monthly articles for the press. However, the publication of Great Contemporaries did not represent an incremental increase in output but was, rather, another of Churchill's ongoing efforts to maximise the financial return on his prior labours.
The first edition, published in October 1937, contained 21 biographical essays, all of which had been previously published in various magazines over the course of the preceding ten years. The revised expanded edition of 1938 added an additional four essays, again, all previously published, for a total of 25. The contents, however, fluctuated over subsequent editions published during the war years. In 1902 Churchill had first recognised the expediency of trimming his literary sails to the prevailing political wind with his excisions for the second edition of The River War. Now he did the same with Great Contemporaries. By the time of the appearance of the World Books and Reprint Society editions of 1941 Britian was allied with Stalin's Russia and the essays on Savinkov and Trotsky were dropped. By 1942 America was in the war and the Macmillan edition of that year further dropped the essay on Roosevelt. Finally in 1947 the Odhams edition reverted to the full text of the revised extended edition and this has been followed by all subsequent English language editions.
The content of the translated editions varies significantly. In many cases essays are excluded due to an obvious lack of local interest, but in some cases the omissions can be an interesting clue to the source text used.
In reading this volume, which I strongly recommend, it is worth keeping in mind that the subjects of these essays were not just Churchill's contemporaries, but many of them were personally known to him - in the role of both friends and antagonists. The character sketches are linguistically rich and politically insightful - in a word, Churchillian.
Translations
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