CHURCHILL, Winston S.

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

Savrola. A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania. Second US edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "Inscribed by Winston S. Churchill for Albert McCleery 22 Oct. 1956". Savrola is among the most difficult of Churchill's works to find signed or inscribed.McCleery (1911-1974) was the producer of the televised play of the novel, broadcast on NBC on 15 November 1956. Churchill's daughter Sarah, a professional actress who worked extensively with McCleery, starred as the character Lucile, the young wife of the dictator. McCleery travelled to show Churchill the script at La Pausa on 23 October, a meeting he subsequently described as the "peak of his life" (Brooke, p. 247). However, McCleery reported that Churchill was irritated that his main character's words had been paraphrased: "He said, 'Why don't you use my words here?' He was most emphatic". Churchill requested revisions to the script, which were duly made but delayed the broadcast by two weeks (Star Tribune, 31 October 1956).Savrola was Churchill's only novel, a melodramatic tale of liberal revolution in an autocratic Mediterranean state. It was first published in the US in 1900. This second edition has a new foreword by Churchill, in which he reflected that his original preface "submitted the book 'with considerable trepidation to the judgement or clemency of the public'. The intervening fifty-five years have somewhat dulled though certainly not changed my sentiments on this point". Desp

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.