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Churchill writes to the English novelist, "It is very good of you to send me Rural England, and I shall look forward to reading it with the greatest interest, as soon as I have a leisure moment". By the 1890s, Haggard was established as the leading writer of adventure fiction in English. When Churchill was a schoolboy, Haggard was his "favourite author" (Martin, p. 196); he sent him fan mail, and once visited him and received an inscribed copy of Allan Quatermain. In his later career, Haggard, eager to move beyond "the mere invention of romance upon romance" (cited in ODNB), conducted extensive agricultural research. This culminated in Rural England, published in 1902 in two volumes, which exposed the wretched state of farming and proposed reforms. Haggard wrote to Churchill on 29 May 1908, "I now send you Rural England, hoping that it may prove useful for occasional reference & that, although it is a far cry from a big & solid work of this sort to 'Allan Quatermain', you will (after a lapse of many years) as you said put them side by side". In a postscript, Haggard drew attention to the "beneficent effect of woods on the prospects of the small-holder. It is owing to the woods in which they work in winter that these little men do so well in that unpromising situation. This strikes me as one of the great arguments for a large scheme of national afforestation. It would help enormously to repeople the land of Britain" (in Churchill Archives, CHAR 2/34/51). Churchill was then President of the Board of Trade, which directed and regulated commerce and industry. Churchill's letter adds, "I shall pay particular attention to the part dealing with afforestation". Although Churchill never implemented the large-scale afforestation schemes Haggard hoped for, he did promote it as a means of reducing unemployment. In a speech on 10 October 1908, he said "there ought to be in permanent existence certain recognised industries of a useful, but uncompetitive character, like, we will say, afforestation, managed by public departments, and capable of being expanded or contracted according to the needs of the labour market" (printed in his Liberalism and the Social Problem, 1909, p. 200). Provenance: the collection of Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Magazine, and presidential candidate in the 1996 and 2000 US elections. Ralph G. Martin, Lady Randolph Churchill, 1970. Single sheet of Board of Trade letterhead (189 x 129 mm), typed one side. Light toning at head and foot, minor tape residue to verso where formerly mounted. In good condition.
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