Month: March 2009

Lecture and Book Signing Events 1999-2017

Lecture and Book Signing Events 1999-2017

Churchill in 1932 was a lecture specialist. He especially liked Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Ann Arbor: “And who would miss Chattanooga,” he wrote, “lying in its cup between the Blue Ridge and Lookout Mountain?” East, west, north, and south he rode the rails, “living all day on my back in a railway compartment and addressing in the evening large audiences.”

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Winston Churchill’s Visit to New Orleans, 1932

Winston Churchill’s Visit to New Orleans, 1932

Churchill was in New Orleans on his 1932 lecture tour, between 16 February and 11 March. It was during the last hectic leg of his abbreviated schedule. (In December he was nearly killed by a car in New York and had recuperated in the Bahamas through 22 January.) On 11 March he boarded the Majestic in New York and sailed home. His New Orleans appearance would likely have been around 18-22 February. Or just after the 23rd,

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Churchill’s Collected Works

Churchill’s Collected Works

In the 1990s I found and began binding several hundred remaining sheets in leather as well as vellum, but those too are now out of sight. Also, the general editor of the series, the late Fred Woods, edited many of the texts (making changes discussed in detail in the Connoisseur's Guide), which makes them useless as a source of Churchill's original words. The great advantage of the enterprise was the four-volume Collected Essays, the only collection of Churchill’s periodical articles (other than those reprinted in his books) ever published in volume form, with a fine introduction by the late Michael Wolff.

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The Churchill Copyright

The Churchill Copyright

The copyright in Churchill's papers, literary works and papers of which he was the author, did not form part of the 1995 purchase by the British Government, but remains (under the terms of Sir Winston's will) the property of his family, except where it has been separately assigned. No charge is made in the case of reproduction for academic research.

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More Obama and the Churchill Bust

More Obama and the Churchill Bust

First and foremost, the Daily Telegraph did not connect Obama's grandfather's jailing with the Mau Mau rebellion. The Telegraph report is very careful on this point: "It was during Churchill's second premiership that Britain suppressed Kenya's Mau Mau rebellion. Among Kenyans allegedly tortured by the colonial regime included one Hussein Onyango Obama, the President's grandfather."

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“The Last Lion” Volume III is Published

“The Last Lion” Volume III is Published

Paul Reid has not written a biography, but rather an old-style “life & times” narrative with guns and bullets, political conniving, oft-repeated (but worth repeating) anecdotes, lovely touches of the personal, and the most important asset—a hero. It is a nice cruise down a rather lengthy river that you’ve sailed before. Still, it is a lovely and literate view of familiar territory that massages old stories, nurtures legends, and points gently to miscalculations and mistakes of the hero—who flawed though he was, remains a hero.

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President Obama and the Churchill Bust – Out

President Obama and the Churchill Bust – Out

James Kirkup reported in the March 2nd Telegraph that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was presenting the President with "a first edition of Sir Martin Gilbert's seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill." ("Seven volumes" was a typo; Sir Martin was short Volume V, but Chartwell Booksellers in New York City helped him out and the full eight volumes were delivered.) So now, effectively, "Winston is Back" in the White House, and President Obama has arguably more Churchilliana than President Bush had.

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Eleuthera Byways: The Queen’s Baths

Eleuthera Byways: The Queen’s Baths

PoOn the Queen’s High­way a few miles north of Gre­go­ry Town, about 300 yards before the Glass Win­dow bridge, pull off the road across from  a sandy track lead­ing up the hill toward the Atlantic on your right. You can’t miss it: the Min­istry of Tourism has recent­ly erect­ed a mark­er. You’ve arrived at the Queen’s Baths.

Walk up toward the Atlantic as the bush thins out and the sand takes over. Soon the sand thins and you’re walk­ing on bare coral. Watch your step to avoid the uneven sur­face and pock­marked holes. As you approach the ocean, work your way to the left (north), keep­ing Har­bour Island on the hori­zon ahead of you.…

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Eleuthera Byways: Edwin’s Fishlake

Eleuthera Byways: Edwin’s Fishlake

First pub­lished in The Eleuther­an, Sep­tem­ber 2008; Edwin’s Tur­tle Lake Marine Pre­serve, with a fine new dock and the bot­tle shack restored in Decem­ber 2014.

Edwin’s of old

Three miles south of Governor’s Har­bour, on the right side at the S-bends as the road plunges toward Pal­met­to Point, is a large salt­wa­ter lake. Passers­by who stop to inves­ti­gate will find the remains of a curi­ous shed built of mor­tar and beer bot­tles, the amber, green and clear glass sort­ed by colour, bot­toms fac­ing out. A few yards away, obscured by bush and weath­ered by the years, was a wood­en sign whose words were just legible:

Edwin’s Fish­ing Lake

Estab­lished March 10th 1954

The First Fish­lake of the Bahamas

Over 20,000 fish of 32 vari­eties have

been placed in this lake.…

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“Correrai Ancor Piu Veloce…” Beverly Rae Kimes 1941-2008

“Correrai Ancor Piu Veloce…” Beverly Rae Kimes 1941-2008

None who read it will ever forget "Man on Fire!": Beverly Kimes’s biography of Tazio Nuvolari. It was one of those signal experiences when you remember where you were. I read it in galleys on the "Broadway Limited" en route to Chicago: started in Newark and put it down somewhere west of Harrisburg. She wound up with the legend on the great racing driver's tombstone: Correrai ancor piu veloce per le vie del cielo. (You will travel faster still upon the highways of heaven.) "Ah Tazio," she ended: "Godspeed." And that's all that really matters in the end: thoughts of old and good times, which eventually blot out the last sad ones. Ah Bev...Godspeed.

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