Winston Churchill: An Intimate Portrait by Violet Bonham Carter (1965, Hardc...

Winston Churchill:  An Intimate Portrait
by Violet Bonham Carter
Publisher:  Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
Copyright:  1965
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

This superb account of the public and private life of "the greatest Englishman" of our century makes a rare firsthand contribution to the history of an epoch and to the understanding of a man.  Violet Bonham Carter was Churchill's close personal friend for nearly sixty years.  Her book focuses on the formative and crucial years from 1906 to 1916 that shaped his political style as well as his philosophy; it contains a vast amount of new material that has never been previously published.

Violet Bonham Carter begins her story in 1906, when she first met Winston Churchill at a dinner party, and closes in 1916, when he had suffered what then appeared to be a disastrous political defeat.  During much of that period her father, H. H. Asquith, was Prime Minister of England, and Churchill served in his cabinet as President of the Board of Trade and as Home Secretary.  From the time of their first encounter she was mesmerized by his brilliance, and she soon became the confidante of the man who was "the most discussed, conspicuous, and contentious figure of his day inside the Government or out of it."  She describes Churchill's early years in the prosperous Victorian household ruled by Lord Randolph Churchill and his beautiful American wife, the former Jennie Jerome.  After he was graduated from Sandhurst he plunged into the excitement of his early military career and his many exploits as a journalist, writer, and lecturer.  In the rough and tumble of his early political skirmishes Churchill lost his first election, but later, as the young war correspondent who had made an incredible escape from the Boers, he won his seat in Parliament, where he was a member for sixty years.

The eloquence of Churchill's maiden speech in the House of Commons; his dramatic shift from the Conservative to the Liberal Party; his elation at becoming First Lord of the Admiralty; his prodigious energy in revamping the British Navy; the dark, early days of World War I, the disaster of the Dardanelles and Gallipoli -- all are recounted here.

At their first meeting, Violet Bonham Carter thought, "This is what people mean when they talk of seeing stars . . . I recognized the light of genius."  Her opinion never wavered.  History has confirmed her judgment.

Condition:  Used.  Hardcover.  Dust cover shows discoloration, wear and tear on the edges.  Inside covers and pages are tanning from age.

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