CHURCHILL, Winston S.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Autograph letter signed, gathering intelligence and colour while writing The River War. An early, unpublished letter from the young Churchill, wonderfully affable and assured, written to General Gordon's nephew as he gathered material for his forthcoming book The River War.General Gordon was killed by Mahdist forces in Khartoum in 1885. It was in part to avenge him that the British and Egyptians reconquered the Sudan; from August to September 1898, Churchill fought in the campaign alongside the letter's recipient, Colonel William Staveley Gordon (1863-1907) of the Royal Engineers.Churchill had recently begun work on his account of the campaign. "Perhaps you remember that the night before the action of Omdurman I spoke to you on the subject of a book I proposed to write, if the event were fortunate, about the campaigns on the Nile. You then promised that you would help me with facts and opinions and I departed happily, my homeward steps illumined by your search light, my spirits cheered by your words and your whiskey. Now whereas all these things are undoubtedly true, I venture to ask you to set pen to paper on my behalf".He continues, "My book is to be called 'The River War'; it will be published in April or as soon after as possible by Messrs Longman & Green at about 16/- ; Jack Leslie and Angus McNeill will illustrate and Frankie Rhodes will edit it. I have some hopes with all these advantages of producing a true and perhaps lasting account of what after all was a very big

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