Winston Churchill, Meet Winston Churchill

Collectors of Churchill books have inevitably run into offers of volumes by Winston Churchill with unfamiliar titles such as Coniston, Richard Carvel, and Mr. Crewe’s Career. One title looks close to familiar, The Crisis, but not quite right. You can find online listings for it today by British booksellers attributing authorship to “Sir Winston Churchill.” A little fact checking by prospective purchasers or half-diligent booksellers, however, will reveal that The Crisis and the other three titles were all produced by an American author named Winston Churchill and not the British Winston Churchill to whom this journal is dedicated.

The two Winston Churchills did have connections in terms of age and avocation. The American Winston was born in 1871, just three years before the British Winston. Both Winstons became well-known writers in the late 1890s, albeit continents and subject areas apart. In My Early Life (published in 1930), British Winston explained how he became aware of the American novelist.

In the spring of 1899 I became conscious of the fact that Gradually I realised that there was ‘another Richmond in the field,’ luckily on the other side of the Atlantic.