THE END IS NIGH!
Sandy Finlayson writes: "Is there any news on when the next Churchill
Documents volume will be released?"
The printer expects to ship Volume 22 ("The Opposition Years," August
1945-October 1951) in July. Let's say availability by September. The final
Volume 23 ("Never Flinch, Never Weary," November 1951-January 1965) will
appear in the autumn. Like previous volumes, each will sell for only $60,
well under cost, but commercial considerations are not the priority. All
volumes to date are available from Hillsdale College Bookstore
<http://bookstore.hillsdale.edu/merchlist?ID=15446>.
Both volumes, well over 2500 pages, use a special paper designed to be thin
enough to bind, but not so thin as to cause "bleed-through" from print on
the other side.
Late last March, all of us proofreaders, kibitzers and editors read the
final document (Lady Churchill to Prime Minister Harold Wilson, 9 February
1965), and suddenly realized: IT'S OVER. The longest biography on the
planet, 15 million words, has ended, 57 years after Randolph Churchill set
to work. If he were here, I said on the recent Hillsdale Cruise, he would
probably say, "What took you so long?"
Well, what took so long was that Martin Gilbert found one huge pile of
stuff. There is a "wodge" of documents virtually for every day of
Churchill's life. We had a gala banquet in London to celebrate Randolph,
Martin, Dr. Larry Arnn and the Great Work, attended by all who had a hand
in it. Among them was Lady Gilbert (Esther), who spoke eloquently of
Martin, whose memory we cherish across the years. Her remarks and others
will be up on winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu shortly. It was a moment.
Now this is not the end, or even the beginning of the end. Plans are afoot
for further works, including a new edition of the *Collected Essays—*expanded
from the original four volumes to many more, thanks to new material in the
Ronald Cohen collection and the Gilbert Papers, now acquired by Hillsdale.
Some of it represents an "unknown canon" of obscure Churchill works, not
seen since first publication. Like the OB, there will be electronic as well
as print editions, and an expanded online facility to ease research for
students and scholars.
If anyone would like to help support this great work, and have their name
on the wall in our new Archives Atrium, please contact me at
[email protected].
Richard M. Langworth CBE
Senior Fellow, Hillsdale College
Churchill Project
winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu
richardlangworth.com
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