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This artifact of Churchill s preparation to publish the third volume of his Second World War memoirs is a 2 May 1949 letter signed by Churchill to his close friend, the publishing magnate Viscount Camrose. This two-page letter on Churchill s watermarked, laid paper, Hyde Park Gate stationery features, all in blue ink, Churchill s autograph emendation in the fourth line of the second page, the valediction "Yours sincerely," and his signature "Winston S. Churchill".Condition of the letter is near fine, clean and complete with a single circular hole punched at the upper left for filing, an adjacent staple scar, and one centered horizontal fold, presumably from original posting.Churchill was known to vex his publishers with myriad corrections. On 2 March 1949, Churchill had written "I should be quite agreeable to publication in the autumn." Now, in this letter, Churchill was saying "the book my not be published until the late autumn at the earliest, and possibly not until the beginning of next year, there are a good many months in which I can make improvements." In fact, publication did not happen until April 1950. Churchill s role in the writing of The Second World War is often diminished, given his robust coterie of research assistants and content editors. In this letter, his granular involvement is evident. Churchill speaks to details from the size of appendices, to the checking of "telegrams from other people", to specific chapters which he proposes to "rewrite in a slightly different form", to proposed abridgement of another chapter and word counts of the constituent Books comprising the volume.The recipient of this letter, British newspaper publisher William Ewert Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose (1879-1954), co-owned the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post both papers for which a very young Churchill had served as a war correspondent in the final years of the 19th century during the reign of Queen Victoria. Churchill s Second World War and postwar publisher in Britain Cassell was also linked to Camrose.After the Second World War Camrose played crucial roles in securing Churchill s prosperity. Churchill turned to Camrose to help negotiate sale of publication rights to Churchill s war memoirs - "perhaps the greatest coup of Twentieth Century publishing". Sale of these rights enabled the financial security not only of Churchill, but of his family, via a special Family Trust (alluded to in this archive s correspondence) whereby all earnings from his war memoirs would go to the benefit of his children and grandchildren without the burden of taxation. Camrose also assembled a consortium of benefactors to buy Churchill s beloved country estate, Chartwell, allowing Churchill to reside there for the rest of his life for a nominal rent. Of his close friend, Churchill later wrote "He was one of my most true and most valued friends for more than thirty years."This letter came to us as part of an archive of correspondence from Churchill to Camrose and Camrose s sons, centered on the conception, writing, and publication of Churchill s Second World War memoirs, and spanning sixteen years, from October 1946 to October 1962. The file in which the correspondence was kept bore a typed label "LETTERS SIGNED | (or initialed) | by SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL". Seller Inventory # 008040
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