Late in the year 1900 it suddenly became plain to some of the mystified
inhabitants of the literary world that there were two Winston
Churchills.
It is indeed remarkable how long the error lived which confounded
Winston L. S. Churchill, war correspondent and politician, and eldest
son of Lord Randolph Churchill, with plain Winston Churchill, the
author of "Richard Carvel."
The error cropped out soon after the beginning of the South African
war, when the Englishman, at a place called Estcourt, took gallant part
in the defence of an armored train bound to the relief of Ladysmith. It
was the result of one of the sentences in the report of the action:
"Winston Churchill's brilliant behavior is compared with the gallant
action in the Tirah campaign, which won the Victoria cross for Lord
Fincastle, who was also acting as a newspaper correspondent."
Immediately some persons, who should have known better, jumped to the
conclusion that this Winston Churchill was the author of a book then
extremely popular in this country. It is a notable commentary on the
persistency of false ideas that the two Churchills were not, in certain
quarters, positively distinguished from each other until they met in
Boston the middle of last December. It was an interesting meeting, as
we gather from the notes of a witness.
"The young, light-haired Englishman was in bed, in his room at the
Touraine, shortly after noon, when Major J. B. Pond arrived with a
heavily built six-footer, smooth-shaven, dark-complexioned, a pair of
merry black eyes, and a rather thick body encased in a raglan of dark
gray.
"'Mr. Churchill, Mr. Churchill,' said the Major. The man on the bed
turned over on his side and held out his hand.
"'I'm sorry to find that you are ill,' said the Churchill in the
raglan, as he caught the outstretched hand.
"'Nothing serious, I guess,' said the other; 'been travelling, you know.
But, I say, how came you by that name?'
"The author of 'Richard Carvel' smiled.
"'The first trace of it I can find in the family,' he said, 'is about
1851. It seems that there have been Winston Churchills over here for a
good many years.'
"Then there was an exchange of bouquets. Winston Churchill said that
he had always been looking forward with pleasure to a meeting with his
namesake, and the other Churchill said something in the same strain.
"'I was interested when I read your first book,' said the Englishman.
'Didn't think a great deal of that book; but the other one, "Richard
Carvel," I was willing to become responsible for that.'
"Then it developed that each had been responsible for the other to a
greater or less extent. For this reason it was inevitable that they
should meet."
As a matter of fact, mail for the Englishman, simply directed "Winston
Churchill, Boston, Mass.," had been sent to his namesake's residence
on Beacon Street. Later it was told that the American met the same
embarrassment in London. "When I was staying at Brown's Hotel," he said
to the Parliamentarian, "I found it almost impossible to get my mail.
They compelled me to sign for it personally."
The Englishman, by the way, is the author of a romance in regard to
which the London critics seem to hold an opinion similar to that which
he admittedly holds in regard to the American's first novel--"The
Celebrity."
Speaking of "The Celebrity" reminds us of the still prevalent notion
that its contemptible hero is Mr. Richard Harding Davis. In fact we
believe that the author was openly charged with having written the
satire merely to pay a private grudge. We heard an echo of the charge
as late as this year. Yet, more than two years ago Mr. Churchill, in
a public letter, took pains specifically to deny the imputation. "The
Celebrity" he said, in effect, was entirely an imaginary work. No one
at all resembling the chief character had ever been met by him. So far
from paying grudges, he had no grudge to pay. Indeed, the young writer
grew so tender on the subject that the Colonial atmosphere of "Richard
Carvel" was attributed to his desire to avoid contemporary themes. But
the truth is, he completed "The Celebrity" while temporarily short of
historical material for use in the history of Richard and his Dorothy.
Twice he thoroughly revised "The Celebrity" before sending it to the
publishers.
And who is this Winston Churchill? He is the son of Spalding Churchill
of Maine and Emma Bell Blaine of St. Louis, and he was born in the
Missouri metropolis on Nov. 10, 1871. The first sixteen years of his
life were spent in his birthplace; and there, at Smith Academy, he
prepared for college. The college proved to be the Naval Academy at
Annapolis.
As a boy he was inclined to be uncommonly studious, but at the Naval
Academy he developed a strong inclination towards athletics. It was
largely owing to his energy and his enthusiasm that the cadets revived
rowing. Like most other cadets, he learned to fence expertly; and
you will find an intimate knowledge of this accomplishment in his
treatment of one of the most dramatic scenes in "Richard Carvel." He
took to horseback riding, also to golf and to tennis, in short, to all
the pastimes that strengthen the body and enliven the mind. It is his
devotion to physical exercise which has enabled him to work long and
hard without distress.
He felt, before his graduation from Annapolis, that his place was at
the writing table, not on the deck of a man-o'-war. Apropos of which
he has said: "When a man is being trained for a definite career, it
helps him to make up his mind as to his tastes and abilities. If he is
sure he doesn't want to do that particular thing, he must know pretty
definitely what he does want to do. When he throws over a certainty
for a chance his heart must be firmly set on the kind of work involved
in the chance. For this reason a technical school helps some men to
find their vocation better than four years at a university, where the
training is general."
In 1894 he became editor of the _Army and Navy Journal_. The
following year he joined the staff of the _Cosmopolitan_ at
Irvington-on-the-Hudson. While working for the magazine he took as wife
Miss Mabel Harlakenden Hall of St. Louis, whose fortune induced him to
give up magazine work altogether and devote himself to the realization
of his dreams.
Now if Churchill lacked either determination or genius the wealth
that through marriage he became a sharer in would have have availed
him little. He might have attracted some attention as a dilettante,
or he might have done the things that a wealthy person alone can
do--establish another _Anglo-Saxon Review_, for example, or publish
small thoughts in editions de luxe. He would have succeeded if his
wife had never brought him a copper. It would have taken him longer to
succeed, that is all. Art is long, and life is short only to the poor
fellow who must ascend the ladder round by round. But not all the money
in the world can ease the labor of the brain.
Churchill's ambition, from the first moment that he felt the literary
impulse, was to write a historical novel. Annapolis had fired his
imagination. "Seeing those old houses," he once said, "which used
to be the scenes of the gayest and happiest social life before the
Revolution--they look as if the people had just gone out of them--and
reading the history of the town as it used to be, interested me
greatly in a certain aspect of the life of the colonial planters,
which had not, it seemed to me, been fully and truthfully expressed
in a novel. What I wanted to do in 'Richard Carvel' was to give a
picture of the life of colonial Maryland and Virginia, with special
reference to Annapolis, and to contrast the people who made it with
the corresponding element in England. One of the things I wanted to
bring out strongly was that, although the leading men in business, in
professional life, and in politics, in both Maryland and London, came
from the same stock, a few generations back, politically, the British
had sunk into a state of gross corruption and degradation, while the
Americans were men of the highest integrity and the cleanest motives,
mindful of their legal and moral debt to Great Britain, but resolute
not to endure more than a certain amount of injustice."
And how do you suppose Mr. Churchill prepared for the big task of
writing a historical novel? He has answered the question himself:
"By visiting all the places concerned in the story, and by reading
biographies, histories, memoirs, letters, old newspapers--in fact,
everything which could give me an insight into the life of those days,
or into the character of the people like John Paul Jones and Charles
Fox, whom I desired to introduce. Of course I read a great deal too
much; a great many books gave me no direct help and added nothing to
what I had already learned; but I have no doubt that all this reading
counted in the way of letting me into the spirit and the atmosphere and
the ideas and the business methods and the modes of life and thought
of those days. Of course, I took voluminous notes, and had no end of
trouble to keep them arranged so that I could use them, in spite of the
effort I made to keep notes on costumes in one volume, manners and
customs in another, unusual words and turns of expression in another,
incidents in another, character in another, history in another and so
on."
"Richard Carvel" was begun in St. Louis not long after the author's
marriage. It was written over again for the fifth time between
October, 1898, and April, 1899, at a little town on the Hudson, an
hour's journey from New York. Yet it is a proof of Churchill's zeal
and industry that in those six months he visited the metropolis only
five times. His habit is to work from early breakfast until one in
the afternoon, and then, after luncheon, for a few hours more, after
which he takes some physical exercise; and after dinner he picks up
the thread of the story again. You see, his literary methods are very
simple; they mean work early and late, work done doggedly, and as
scrupulously as if the keenest critic were looking over his shoulder.
The furore which "Richard Carvel" excited is too well remembered, we
think, to particularize on. The author was made a lion of everywhere,
truly, and exhibited in all the gilded cages of the East. We recall
that the mere announcement of his purpose to go to the theatre in
New York was sufficient to insure a big audience. Not another one of
our American authors whose fame is of recent acquirement, and whose
inclination is to keep far from the madding crowd has been followed
about by so many hero-worshippers as the author of "Richard Carvel" was
during the twelvemonth following the publication of the book.
Was the attention justly merited? Undoubtedly. "Richard Carvel" is an
extraordinarily powerful story. Its atmosphere is vivid; its characters
are excellently drawn; its plot is skillfully laid; its action is
vigorous and delightfully varied.
"Richard Carvel" was the first of a series of historical novels which
Churchill planned just after leaving Annapolis. It has been followed
lately by the second member of the series, "The Crisis," the writing of
which occupied nearly two years. While thus engaged the author declined
to be interrupted. Naturally, after bounding to the top of the ladder,
anything which he might have offered would have been accepted by some
publishers. "You have no idea," he once remarked, "of the temptations
that are put in the way of a man whose book has been accorded a popular
success." The temptations he brushed aside; he made up his mind to
pursue a straight road. And wisely, for, as he argues, "When a man
makes a great reputation by a single book, and then allows succeeding
books to go from his hands which do not represent the very best work
of which he is capable, the public finds it out at once. No matter if
there is good work in these hastily written books, people ignore them.
I think it is the worst thing a man can do for his reputation to write
books too fast. Of course, it is the worst possible thing he can do for
his lasting reputation, which is the thing really worth working for,
but what I mean is that it is the worst thing he can do in the short
run as well as in the long run. Why, even speaking commercially, which
is the lowest and the least and the last way in which one can look at
these things, it is a fatal mistake. And I think a novelist makes a
great mistake if he confines himself to one period or writes several
books on one epoch, though it is more or less the practice to-day. I
think we ought to go in more for versatility."
Mr. Churchill is seen in New York and Boston in the winter; in the
summer he is to be found only by traveling 'way down East. In Boston,
particularly, the Churchills have become very well known. There Mr.
Churchill puts up at the most aristocratic clubs, and Mrs. Churchill
graces the most fashionable receptions.
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Obvious printer errors have been corrected. Otherwise, the author's
original spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been left intact.