Year: 2010

Provide for Your Library

Provide for Your Library

“BILL’S BOOKS”

“What shall I do with all my books?” Churchill asked in Thoughts and Adven­tures. It is a ques­tion we should all ponder—while there is still time.

In the Novem­ber 1st issue of Nation­al Review, Neal B. Free­man writes a touch­ing and sen­si­tive appre­ci­a­tion of the library of the late William F. Buck­ley, Jr.: an eclec­tic mix, from tomes on the harp­si­chord to biogra­phies of Elvis Pres­ley, from books inscribed to him to fever­ish­ly marked-up books relat­ing to Buckley’s own writ­ing, to the clas­sics he admired. Because he had not thought to leave spe­cif­ic instruc­tions, his library was bro­ken up, scat­tered to the winds—and not every­thing in it reached an appre­cia­tive owner.…

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Translations of “The Second World War”

Translations of “The Second World War”

I‘m work­ing on an arti­cle and there are some details I need to know: (1) The num­ber of lan­guages into which Churchill’s Sec­ond World War mem­oirs were trans­lat­ed and (2) The num­ber of lan­guages into which the 1959 abridged one-vol­ume edi­tion was trans­lat­ed. —G.A., Spain

Accord­ing to Ronald I. Cohen’s Bib­li­og­ra­phy of the Writ­ings of Sir Win­ston Churchill (Lon­don: Con­tin­u­um, 2006, 3 vols., I: 729-30), The Sec­ond World War was trans­lat­ed into nine­teen lan­guages: Czech, Croa­t­ian, Dan­ish, Dutch, French, Ger­man, Greek, Hebrew, Ital­ian, Japan­ese, Kore­an, Nor­we­gian, Pol­ish, Por­tuguese, Russ­ian, Ser­bian, Span­ish, Swedish and Turkish.…

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World War II Official Histories

World War II Official Histories

Does Eng­land have an offi­cial His­to­ry of WW2 like the “Green Books” that are print­ed in the US as their offi­cial his­to­ry of WW2 and where might find them?  —L.L.

Yes: sev­er­al spe­cial­ized mul­ti-vol­ume series, under the umbrel­la title His­to­ry of the Sec­ond World War, were pub­lished by HMSO (Her Majesty’s Sta­tionery Office, since 2006 part of the Office of Pub­lic Sec­tor Infor­ma­tion with­in the UK Nation­al Archives, for­mer­ly the Pub­lic Records Office).

There are five sub-series, for exam­ple, Llewellyn Wood­ward, British For­eign Pol­i­cy in the Sec­ond World War (five vols.,…

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Robert Hardy at 85: The Greatest “Churchill”

Robert Hardy at 85: The Greatest “Churchill”

Writ­ten for a birth­day trib­ute in Octo­ber 2010….

We have all heard about the art of Tim­o­thy Robert Hardy, even though we don’t need to do so, since it is self-evi­dent. But that real­ly doesn’t mat­ter, does it? His three-decade involve­ment with the Churchill saga pro­vides a bal­sam­ic reit­er­a­tion of what we know, are glad that we know, pity those who do not know, and are proud to be asso­ci­at­ed with.

It began with his peer­less por­tray­als of Sir Win­ston in the 1981 “Wilder­ness Years” TV doc­u­men­tary; David Susskind’s 1986 “Lead­ers” series; a Lon­don stage play; the mini-series “War and Remem­brance”; and—just this August 20th—a bril­liant read­ing from Churchill’s trib­ute to “The Few” on its 70th annniver­sary.…

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Talking Churchill in the Baltic, 1995

Talking Churchill in the Baltic, 1995

I told the Baltic mayor how Churchill had hoped to force a "showdown" with Stalin over Poland if he got back to Potstam. What the result would have been is a matter for conjecture. “Much of Eastern Europe, given harsh reality, had no chance for liberty,” I said, “but we should not denounce the efforts Churchill made.” Mayor Teodors Enins listened politely, but then he just sadly shook his head. "No. You should have fought them anyway."

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Winston S. Churchill 1940-2010

Winston S. Churchill 1940-2010

You can read about Win­ston Churchill’s career else­where. I’d like rather to indulge in the remem­brance of a friend.

We met through the post forty-two years ago, when he became the third hon­orary mem­ber of the Churchill Study Unit, after his grand­moth­er and his father. The lat­ter had only just sent a let­ter of encour­age­ment to our lit­tle group of stamp col­lec­tors when he him­self died. It was June, 1968. In send­ing con­do­lences, I asked Win­ston to take his father’s place. He accept­ed, adding, “It is con­sol­ing to know so many share my loss.”…

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Jack Le Vien’s “The Valiant Years”

Jack Le Vien’s “The Valiant Years”

Would you hap­pen to have any inside infor­ma­tion on when, if ever, the BBC will release “The Valiant Years” doc­u­men­tary in DVD for­mat? Var­i­ous rumors con­tin­ue to cir­cu­late on the Inter­net but there doesn’t appear to be any source with defin­i­tive infor­ma­tion. —H.A.

It has been in the thoughts of many to repro­duce Jack Le Vien’s famous doc­u­men­tary. Although a short­er pro­duc­tion, “The Finest Hours,” nar­rat­ed by Orson Welles, has been repro­duced on a com­mer­cial CD (left), the mul­ti­ple-part “Valiant Years” was not until just recent­ly. It is now avail­able on DVD from MediaOutlet.com.…

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