THE WORKS OF
WINSTON CHURCHILL
AN ON-LINE INDEX
Edited by David Widger
Project Gutenberg Editions
Winston Churchill (1871-1947)
(The American Author who is not related to the British Sir Winston)
A Sketch of his Life and Work
This sketch was released by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY as part of a document
to promote Churchill's 1913 novel, "The Inside of the Cup."
Mr. Winston Churchill, the author of "The Inside of the Cup," "The
Modern Chronicle," "Mr. Crewe's Career," "Coniston," "Richard Carvel,"
"The Crisis," and "The Crossing," was born in St. Louis, Mo., November
10, 1871. He is the oldest son of Edwin Spaulding Churchill of Portland,
Me., and Emma Bell Blaine, of St. Louis. The first sixteen years of his
life he spent in his native city, which was in fact his home until he
built Harlakenden House, his present residence at Cornish, N. H. In St.
Louis, it will be remembered, the opening scenes of "The Crisis" are
laid; and St. Louis again formed the objective point of Mr. Churchill's
next novel, "The Crossing." From Smith Academy in St. Louis he went to
the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md.
Winston Churchill had not been a year at the Naval Academy before he
became interested in American history and American problems, and before
he finished his course he had made up his mind to devote his life and
energies to these--not only with the pen, but as an active participant.
Much of the atmosphere and some of the material for "Richard Carvel" he
gathered while still a midshipman at the Naval Academy; and in the brief
intervals between scientific studies and drills he began to read some of
the history which he afterwards used.
He resigned from the Navy on his graduation, worked for a time on the
Army and Navy Journal, and then joined the staff of The Cosmopolitan.
While he lived at Irvington-on-the-Hudson, working steadily on the
magazine, he continued his experience with fiction. He never tried to
publish any of his first work, and it is not now in existence. That year
(1895) he married Miss Mabel Harlakenden Hall, of St. Louis; and not
long after established his home at Cornish.
He found himself at this time in a fairly enviable position. He was not
obliged to spend his life doing hack-work, and could take abundant
leisure to perfect any piece of writing which he undertook. However, he
united with his rare good fortune much rare good sense. He best
illustrated the familiar paradox that genius is a capacity for taking
infinite pains. He approached his work with an inexhaustible patience, a
dogged determination to be true to his own high exactions, both in style
and substance.
Before he began "Richard Carvel," and also while it was on the stocks,
he visited Virginia and Maryland, and studied the country and the old
records with great thoroughness. He also read a vast amount of history
and other literature which gave the spirit of the period. During the
seven or eight months in '98 and '99, when he was writing the book from
beginning to end for the fifth time, he was living on the Hudson, about
thirty miles from New York. During those months he worked from breakfast
to one o'clock, then for some hours after luncheon. Late in the
afternoon he would take a long horseback ride, and after dinner he would
go at his work again, continuing sometimes far into the night. In the
midst of his work on "Richard Carvel," while he was staying at Lake
George, he ran out of historical material, and wrote "The Celebrity."
This novel was the subject of a great deal of comment on its first
appearance in 1897, and many people still regard it as the brightest and
most amusing and original piece of work which Mr. Churchill has done.
After finishing his work on "Richard Carvel," Mr. Churchill, in the
spring of 1899, went to live at Cornish, N. H., where he had purchased a
large farm on high ground on the banks of the Connecticut, just opposite
Windsor, Vt. On the estate which he had bought Mr. Churchill then built
Harlakenden House, which is modelled upon one of the mansions of
Colonial Maryland. In 1913 Harlakenden House was selected by President
Woodrow Wilson as his summer residence.
It was here that news of the great success of "Richard Carvel" came to
Mr. Churchill.
The novel immediately became the most popular book in the United States,
and was more widely read and discussed during its first year than has
been the case with any other book ever published.
"Richard Carvel" contains the great historical figures of Charles James
Fox and John Paul Jones. Perhaps the most thrilling and vividly written
passage in the book is that which describes the memorable battle between
the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis. It was this that was accountable
for the revival of interest in John Paul Jones and led to the finding of
his burial place in France and to several biographies written largely
under the stimulus of his character and personality as graphically
revealed in "Richard Carvel."
Two or three years later "The Crisis" appeared. This time Mr. Churchill
chose for his background the stirring days of the Civil War, through
some of its most thrilling events his hero passes. He incidently painted
supremely good pictures of Lincoln and Grant, showing how they grew out
of the conditions that produced the crisis, and how they dominated it
and brought it to such an issue that the country became better, greater
and stronger for the cataclysm that had threatened to disrupt it. Like
"Richard Carvel," "The Crisis" was dramatized, and opened its successful
run on the stage a few months after the book's publication.
Mr. Churchill's next book, in the series of historical romances which he
began with "Richard Carvel," is entitled "The Crossing" and was
published in the spring of 1904. Its title refers to the crossing of the
Alleghanies by the tide of the American immigration after the
Revolutionary War. No annals in the world's history are more wonderful
than the story of this conquest of Kentucky and Tennessee by the
pioneers. In "The Crossing" Mr. Churchill caught the wonder of that
adventurous phase in our early history and made of it what many consider
his most delighting romance.
Meanwhile Mr. Churchill had become actively interested in politics. In
the year 1903 he became a member of the New Hampshire Legislature. The
direct outgrowth of Mr. Churchill's interest and experiences in politics
were two important novels, "Coniston" and "Mr. Crewe's Career."
In "Coniston"--that great prose epic of political corruption as it
existed in New England a generation or more ago--Mr. Churchill showed
his ability to write of contemporary life with a vigor and understanding
which were not surpassed in any of his other work. "Coniston" has a big,
vital, political issue for background and a unique and dominant
character for central interest. "Jethro Bass" was a farmer by origin,
taciturn, inscrutable, with his streak of sardonic humor and his slight,
unforgetable stammer, was heralded as the most important figure Mr.
Churchill had ever drawn.
Two years later "Mr. Crewe's Career" was published, to meet with instant
success. It was a further embodiment of Mr. Churchill's observations and
experiences among the people of the political whirlpool, and showed his
increasing power as a novelist of contemporary life. The business of
politics, the sordid struggles of an election are described with a
graphic pen. Rarely has an American author portrayed with such judicial
calm and yet with such relentless realism, the sinister aspects of
political life in a rural community or woven into this grimy fabric, in
gold thread, a charming love story that goes far to make us forget the
ugly and hateful features of the picture.
It will be seen how, since the publication of "Richard Carvel," Mr.
Churchill's themes move in orderly sequence from Colonial days until
each represents the actual life and atmosphere of distinct periods in
American history. It was "A Modern Chronicle" that brought Mr.
Churchill's work to the heart of the present. The new novel dealt with
the social problems of the marriage condition, the imperfect
civilization of ultra-fashionable life, with its frequent climax of
divorce. Heretofore Mr. Churchill's leading characters are men, but in
"A Modern Chronicle" he gives us a woman--Honora Leffingwell--
fascinating, full of illogical moods and caprices, who, taken from start
to finish, is a most consistent and convincing piece of
characterization.
With the day of its publication, in 1910, "The Modern Chronicle" headed
the list of "Books Most in Demand" at the libraries and the Bookman list
of "Six Best Sellers" in almost every large city of this country. Its
success was confined not only to this side of the water but in Great
Britain, as well; the book was in great demand. These conditions were
due to the fact of the author's established reputation with the great
majority of American and English readers, and to the merits of a work
which received almost unanimous appreciation from the press of both
countries.
Three years have passed since the tremendous success of "A Modern
Chronicle," and during this time Mr. Churchill has worked upon and
completed the novel which, perhaps more than any other, will create
discussion and admiration and go furthest to assure the author's
reputation as the biggest literary figure in America to-day.
"The Inside of the Cup," Mr. Churchill's latest novel, may be rightly
called the sum of his genius. It contains the same art of his former
work, broadened, enriched and matured, and reflects the romance of
"Richard Carvel," the realism of "Coniston," and the deep social
significance of "A Modern Chronicle." From a masterly delineation of the
personal history of a young clergyman and the transformation of his
views and attitudes toward modern society, Mr. Churchill unfolds a
powerful study of the present tendencies in the Church and their new
relation to the life of to-day.
"The Inside of the Cup" is unquestionably the most impressive novel that
Mr. Churchill has yet written, in character drawing and illuminative
disclosures of the cross sections of society, and in the portrayal of
their more delicate and crucial relation to conditions vital to the
national welfare.
CONTENTS
Click on the ## before each title to go directly to a
linked index of the detailed chapters and illustrations
The Works of Winston Churchill
Title Year
The Unchartered Way 1940
Dr. Jonathan (Play) 1919
## A Traveller in War-time ¹ 1918
## Essay on The American Contribution ¹ 1918
## The Dwelling-Place of Light 1917
## A Far Country 1915
## The Inside of The Cup 1913
## A Modern Chronicle 1910
## Mr. Crewe's Career 1908
## Coniston 1906
## The Crossing 1904
Mr. Keegan's Elopement ² 1903
## The Crisis 1901
## Richard Carvel 1899
## The Celebrity ³ 1897
1. Both works were released in 1918 under the title A Traveller in
War-time with an Essay on the American Contribution and the Democratic
Idea.
2. Mr. Keegan's Elopement was first released in serial form for a
magazine in 1896.
3. Other sources (like Wikipedia) say this book was released in 1898.
The article above says it was released in 1897, as does the copyright
page for the book in Hathitrust.
VOLUMES, CHAPTERS AND STORIES
The Celebrity
VOLUME 1.
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
VOLUME 2.
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
VOLUME 3.
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
VOLUME 4.
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
Richard Carvel
Volume 1.
Chapter I. Lionel Carver, of Carver Hall