CHURCHILL, Winston S.

£9,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Savrola. First edition, inscribed by the author on the dedication page, "Winston S. Churchill 1950 for Gerald E. Newson". Savrola is among the most difficult of Churchill's works to find signed or inscribed.Gerald Edmund Newson (1920-1987) joined the RAF as an aircrafthand and rose to corporal. A typed note records the provenance: "In 1950 I reminded Mr. Churchill, as he then was, that on his frequent visits to the RAF Station at Biggin Hill in 1940, (then commanded by Group Captain Grice), I was often detailed to be in personal attendance upon him, and asked him if he would inscribe the book for me". Biggin Hill was one of the principal bases of RAF Fighter Command during the war. Loosely inserted is a typed letter from Churchill's private secretary, dated 9 May 1950, returning the book to Newson after Churchill had signed it.Savrola was Churchill's only novel, a melodramatic tale of liberal revolution in an autocratic Mediterranean state. "Whether they deem it a key indication of Churchill's innermost philosophy and political morality or just a yarn, Savrola continues to exert a grip on devotees of the canon" (Langworth, p. 39).Provenance: the collection of Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Magazine, and presidential candidate in the 1996 and 2000 US elections.

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