Richard M. Langworth

A read­er asks: “Who pub­lished the first com­pi­la­tion of Win­ston Churchill’s wit and wis­dom, and when?” It was Col­in Coote, in 1947—a dear man devot­ed to the hero­ic mem­o­ry. My quo­ta­tions book Churchill by Him­self  is ded­i­cat­ed in part to him.

Colin Reith Coote

Sir Col­in (1893-1979) was a British jour­nal­ist and Lib­er­al politi­cian. For four­teen years he was edi­tor of the Dai­ly Tele­graph. There he came to know and admire Churchill. Short­ly after World War II, he thought to com­pile a book of Churchillisms, anno­tat­ed to val­i­date each entry. He wrote for per­mis­sion, and received a kind and rev­e­la­to­ry reply, which pro­vid­ed Churchill’s view of his lit­er­ary assigns:

28 Hyde Park Gate, 21 July 1946

My dear Colin,

Thank you for your let­ter of July 15.…

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