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Whatever Happened to Sir Winston’s Chartwell Library?
- By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
- | April 28, 2022
- Category: Q & A The Literary Churchill
Q: About Chartwell’s library
A question about Churchill’s books: At Chartwell I was busily copying down all the book titles I could make out on the shelves—not easy from behind the ropes. A kindly guide said it wasn’t worthwhile, because Sir Winston’s library had been dispersed and what I was seeing (or most of it) was not his own collection. Churchill read widely and collected thousands of books. Many more were inscribed and sent to him by fellow authors and colleagues. He also collected books needed for his writing projects. He had planned to write a biography of Napoleon, and amassed a vast library on Napoleon, which I understand went to one of the university libraries. But what about all the rest?
A: Much is in good hands
The Chartwell guide is right that the books on display now do not comprise the bulk of Sir Winston’s original library. The good news is that the most important components have been preserved and are being professionally archived. A significant portion of Churchill’s library has survived intact in family possession and plans are advancing that should see it made available in due course.
Napoleon collection
We also referred your question to Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archives Centre at Cambridge, who writes:
There is an interesting book to be written at some point on Churchill’s library. His Napoleon collection of some 173 books was specially bound. It was presented to Churchill College by Clementine Churchill after his death and can be consulted by appointment in the Churchill Archives Centre. Interested parties can access the list here.
Some of the most important inscribed books passed by descent to the current Mr. Randolph Churchill and are deposited in the Churchill Archives Centre. A list is not yet available.
A core of the library of Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir Winston and his son Randolph, passed by descent to the late Mr. Winston Churchill. It was deposited by him at the University of Southampton, but was later withdrawn by him and placed in the Churchill Archives Centre. It is now owned by the current Randolph Churchill and details can be supplied by the Archives Centre on request. There is a collection of less important works at Chartwell. And then there are all the books given to others, which will have been dispersed.
The back story: 1966
In 2005 I published a piece on the library by a journalist who, as a neighborhood lad of 17, helped inventory Chartwell for the National Trust. He found the house mainly as Churchill had left it. Lady Churchill had already removed her own belongings. He was making good progress organizing the library until the arrival of Churchill’s son Randolph. “He ransacked my neat piles of books, combing through the volumes for any that had been signed or annotated by his father.” These were boxed and removed, as the writer recalled “with indecent haste.”
Wishing to be accurate, I asked the late Lady Soames to vet this article and correct or comment according to her own memories. Of this account she wrote: “Under the terms of Churchill’s will, Randolph had every right to the books he removed. Many are treasured heirlooms and still with the family or at Churchill College, Cambridge.”
Surveying the library: 1992
Thirty years ago, the bibliophile-collector Michael Wybrow and I made a day-long visit to the Chartwell library. We were then booksellers, and had encountered copies of books Randolph Churchill removed. They usually bore his own bookplate from Stour, his home in Suffolk. Invariably they contained a small oval label reading: “From the Library of Sir Winston Churchill.” We were anxious to know their origins, and how they fitted into the original scheme of things at Chartwell’s library.
Security was less of a concern then, and the administrator, Jeane Broome, kindly let us examine books closely. We were able to survey all the shelves and even to open (very carefully!) the odd volume. We did not attempt an inventory because (as I would learn later) part of the original collection had been dispersed.
The shelves were tightly packed with spares and odd copies, and there were many duplicates. For example, there were multiple copies of the Anglo-Saxon Review, edited by Lady Randolph Churchill. Among books by WSC himself, an extraordinary number were foreign translations. (I remember my first encounter with the Turkish edition of The Second World War. It was limited to three volumes because, as Churchill’s agent Emery Reves remembered, “the Turks stopped paying royalties!”)
This represents all I know about the Chartwell library and its fate. I am pleased indeed that vast parts of it are in safe hands now, and will be preserved for future generations.
Further reading
Christopher C. Harmon, “The Books That Churchill Read” (American Spectator, May 2022)
A.L. Rowse, ‘There was Once a Man’: A Visit to Chartwell, 1955 (2016)