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Jun 15 Fri Morgan Library, Churchill and the Power of Words

Churchill's rich verbal legacy shown off in exhibits and son et lumiere booth

His passion, oratory, and vision key to British resistance against heavy odds

Drink and naps fueled late night discussion, strong leadership, and great books

Extraordinary stable, loyal marriage

As Ed Murrow once put it, Winston Churchill "marshaled the power of words and sent them into battle" - Jack Kennedy in a speech later awarding Churchill honorary US citizenship in 1963 repeated this metaphor, substituting "mobilized" for "marshaled" - and now we have a splendid documentary exhibit at the Morgan Library celebrating Churchill's rich spoken and written legacy. It's title is "The Power of Words", and runs till mid September.

The show raises the question, just how great a writer and orator was Winston Churchill, in whom the two roles were combined to a greater degree that almost any other politician in history?

The exhibition won an hour of coverage on PBS by Charlie Rose who talked at his table with Celia Sandys, one of Churchill's grand daughters and sister to Edwina Sandys, the New York sculptor, the amiable Lord Alan Watson of Richmond patron of the Churchill Archives, and a couple of other Englishmen expert in Churchill lore, David Reynolds of Cambdirge and Peter Clark, author of the recent Winston;s Profession, all of whom told more than one good story about the great man. One Lord Alan recounted had him sitting next to a German Parliamentarian after the War in a bus as it was rolling up the driveway pf the gigantic Blenheim Palace. The German, who had never been there before, had turned to him and said, "You know, if Adolf Hitler had known that Winston Churchill was born in such a place he would never have started the war!"

The exhibition is reached by paying up $15 at the new, modern glass walled entrance on Madison just below 38 Street, and walking through more glass doors into the old fashioned archway leading into the high ceilinged, warm wooded interior of the old rooms which house the show.

On either side of the exhibition entrance porch are vast placards describing the themes of the show each mounted with huge photos of Winston seated and looking into the camera lens of Andrew Karsh, the famous Ottawa photographer. They were taken by Karsh on Dec 30 1941, moments after Churchill had addressed the Canadian Parliament and arrived at the Speaker's Chamber in search of a drink only to find he had to sit for Karsh, wh proceeded to remove the cigar from his mouth and photograph the ensuing scowl, in an image of the great man resolute, defiant and entirely emblematic of what Churchill stood for at that dangerous time. Moments later, however, he lightened up, giving Karsh the other side of his personality with an amused smile, and the photograph is on the right

Past the placards on either side of the doorway and you enter the exhibition room with its table cases and small, curtained off dark room with seats where sound recordings of Churchill and Kennedy are matched to large projected photographs of moments in Churchill's career and the wars through which he lived and led the British people

Another expert is Martin Gilbert, Churchill's official biographer and one of Britain’s leading historians, who is an Honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and a Distinguished Fellow of Hillsdale College, Michigan. He is the author of eighty-two books, including Churchill: A Life, and he lives in London. He has edited excerpts from Churchill's writings - speeches, letters, books, and other documents - into a book with the same title, which is on sale in the smart Morgan Library bookstore, devoted to the idea of the book and related artefacts.

Just how great a writer and speaker was Churchill?

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Courtesy of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, and the Estate of Winston S. Churchill; CHAR 9/181B/180<br />
Churchill used his broadcast on April 27, 1941, against the backdrop of British defeat in Greece, to emphasize British resolve and the higher “moral sentiment” of the United States.
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Courtesy of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, and the Estate of Winston S. Churchill; CHAR 9/181B/180
Churchill used his broadcast on April 27, 1941, against the backdrop of British defeat in Greece, to emphasize British resolve and the higher “moral sentiment” of the United States.

  • Courtesy of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, and the Estate of Winston S. Churchill; CHAR 9/181B/180<br />
Churchill used his broadcast on April 27, 1941, against the backdrop of British defeat in Greece, to emphasize British resolve and the higher “moral sentiment” of the United States.
  • 7. Telegram from Bernard Baruch offering shelter to Churchill’s grandchildren in New York, April 9, 1939<br />
Courtesy of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge; CHAR 1/343/100<br />
Bernard Baruch, an American financier and adviser to several Presidents, was one of Churchill’s closest American friends. In April 1939 he offered sanctuary in New York to Churchill’s two young grandchildren, Julian and Edwina Sandys, in the event of war. Churchill declined the offer and replied that the English countryside was “fairly safe.”
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  • Churchill as a young officer, c1895<br />
Churchill Additional Papers, WCHL 4/41<br />
Courtesy of the Churchill Family<br />
The early death of Churchill’s father, and the sudden need to make a name and an income, led him to pick up his pen while serving as an officer in the British army.
  • 12. Telegram from Churchill to Irish Prime Minister Eamon De Valera, December 8, 1941<br />
Courtesy of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, and the Estate of Winston S. Churchill; CHAR 20/46/41<br />
In his published account of the war Churchill was famously candid about his response to Pearl Harbor. He also described how he sent this telegram to the Irish Prime Minister, Eamon De Valera. Ireland, with its long history of struggle against Britain for independence, had chosen neutrality. Churchill now offered alliance, but on this occasion his words went unheeded.
  • 5. Letter from Dr. Otto Pickhardt approving Churchill’s use of alcohol, January 26, 1932<br />
Courtesy of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge; CHAR 1/400A/46<br />
While visiting Manhattan on December 13, 1931, Churchill made the classic mistake of an Englishman in America and looked the wrong way when stepping out of a cab. He was hit by an oncoming car, requiring a trip to the hospital, and a postponement of his lecture tour. Churchill turned the episode to his advantage, however, writing his tale of the near-miss for newspapers, and securing from Dr. Otto Pickhardt this prescription for medicinal alcohol at the height of prohibition.
  • 9. Carbon of final page of “Give us the tools” broadcast, February 9, 1941<br />
Courtesy of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, and the Estate of Winston S. Churchill; CHAR 9/150A/75 Throughout the crisis of 1940–41, Churchill used his broadcasts to appeal directly to public opinion in the United States. In his February 9, 1941 broadcast, he quoted the Longfellow poem “O Ship of State,” which President Roosevelt had just written out for him, and offered this response: “We shall not fail or falter....Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.”
  • Winston Churchill, 1941 by Yousuf Karsh
  • 16. Handwritten letter from King George VI to Churchill on the death of Roosevelt, April 13, 1945<br />
Courtesy of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge; CHAR 20/199/96<br />
© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II<br />
The death of President Roosevelt on April 13, 1945, was described by Churchill as the loss of “the greatest American friend we have ever known.” King George VI wrote this letter by hand to Churchill to express his sorrow.
  • 4. Letter from Churchill to his mother, July 17, 1890<br />
Courtesy of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, and the Estate of Winston S. Churchill; CHAR 28/18/42b<br />
It was at Harrow School that Churchill began his serious relationship with words, writing pieces for the school magazine, and winning a prize for reciting lines from memory. A letter home to his mother during this time shows Winston using all of his powers of persuasion—written and visual—to convince her of the versatility of the outfit he hoped to order.
  • 19. Churchill’s Medal of Honor, 1952<br />
On loan from Chartwell, National Trust<br />
© National Trust Images /Charles Thomas<br />
In January 1952 Churchill visited New York as a peacetime Prime Minister and received the City’s Medal of Honor.
  • 11. Hand-colored graph depicting merchant shipping losses in the Atlantic, September 1939–April 1941, produced 1941<br />
Courtesy of the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge; CHAR 20/51/12<br />
In public Churchill’s words were confident, resolute and defiant. In private he used every means at his disposal to try to influence President Roosevelt and the American administration. This hand-colored graph was specifically produced to inform conversations between Churchill and Roosevelt, and records the high merchant shipping losses in the Atlantic that were threatening to cripple Britain in 1941.
  • 20. Churchill’s Nobel Prize for Literature citation, 1953<br />
On loan from Chartwell, National Trust<br />
© National Trust Images /Charles Thomas<br />
Sir Winston Churchill was awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature. The citation, in Swedish, reads, “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.”
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