Winston Churchill Writes About His Books and Articles in a Letter to The News of the World, Which Published So Many of Them

He looks to the future: “With the arrangement covering the years 1939, 1940 and 1941, added to the five now completed, I shall have been working for you for eight consecutive years. In these circumstances I shall certainly expect an invitation to the annual outing of the staff.”

Winston Churchill’s main source of income was not his salary as a Member of Parliament, but as an author. He wrote 43 book length works in 72 volumes, and also wrote some 10,000 articles for newspapers and magazines over a period of decades on a broad variety of subjects. In many cases, these newspaper articles were for The News of the World, which was so fond of his work that from 1936 and 1939, they paid him £400 for article, which would be £12,000 (or over $15,000) in today’s money. Quite a sum to pay a columnist during the Depression, and enough to keep Churchill in his Pol Roger champagne and Romeo y Julieta brand cigars. Major Percy Davies was director of the News of the World, and Churchill worked closely with him.

In 1936, Churchill had contracted to write series on “Great Men I Have Known” and “Great Men of All Time”, and he and the News of the World executives selected the subjects. In 1937, the articles switched focus to important issues. Davies sent Churchill a list that included seven topics, most of which related to Churchill’s campaign to make Britain prepared for the war he saw coming, and his affinity for the bond between English-Speaking Peoples, about which Churchill would later write a set of books. The Davies suggestions were: 1. The Future of National Defence; 2. How Future Wars Will Be Waged; 3. The Effect of Aerial Transport on Civilization; 4. The Importance of Our Social Services; 5. The Reform of Our Penal System; 6. The Peopling of the Wide Open Spaces; and 7. The Union of the English-Speaking Peoples.

Churchill had additional ideas, ideas that show the breadth of his interests, and also his priorities, in the Wilderness years. He added eight more possibilities, and returned the combined list to Davies. Headed “Mr. Churchill’s suggestions” by his secretary, they were: 1. The United States of Europe, a topic that shows his foresight, as he was the first important statesman to use the term; 2. Parliamentary Democracy; 3. The Future of Invention; 4. Marriage and Divorce; 5. Birth Control and Population, a subject showing him decades early in identifying this as an issue; 6. Asia Tomorrow (India and Japan); 7. The Future of Taxation; and 8. The Effect of Modern Amusements on Life and Character, a question still very much current today.

A number of the articles ultimately selected in this back-and-forth with Churchill would run in 1938. For example, an article entitled “Why Not ‘The United States of Europe’?” would run in The News of the World in May 1938 and “Union of the English-Speaking Peoples” shortly after. On May 1, 1938, The News of the World published Churchill’s major warning about Britain’s unreadiness. In that article Churchill wrote, flatly, “Our fleet and air force are inadequate.” Arrangements were made with The News of the World for Churchill to continue to write articles in the future, beyond 1938.

Churchill also placed articles and book excerpts with other publications. With News of the World making such a strong commitment to Churchill at this time, Davies asked Churchill what other publishing obligations Churchill had. This was Churchill’s response.

Typed letter signed, on his letterhead, three pages, December 17, 1937, to Percy Davies.

“I am very glad indeed to accept the arrangements set forth in your letter of the 16th instant. It is a great satisfaction to me to be able to make some plans ahead, and to keep the course clear for my work for the News of the World. With regard to the existing contracts, these are as follows: The present series now running in the Sunday Chronicle will not be finished until the end of February. They also made a contract to have the option of purchasing the English rights of the six articles I have written for Colliers during the present year at £100 apiece. This added to the $350 which Colliers pays make these articles very attractive to me. Four of the six articles have already been published in England by the Sunday Chronicle. Two, namely one on Divorce and one on Mr. Neville Chamberlain, have not yet been published. I have the right to withhold any article from them if I do not think it suitable for the British public or for any other reason. This right I can exercise if I desire it. Besides this the Sunday Chronicle have renewed their contract for the six articles which Colliers has commissioned for 1938, which will probably not be written till later in the year. I talked to Mr. Drawbell on the telephone and found him most obliging and considerate. He is willing to waive altogether the contract for 1938 for the Colliers’ articles, but he asked particularly that the two remaining articles of the 1937 contract might be given to him for publication at some time when the News of the World is not running any series. I told him that I would ask you about it.

“I am quite willing to exercise my right to veto if you desire it. I could on the other hand very likely persuade Mr. Drawbell to use these other six articles, as he suggested, in some other paper or magazine of his group other than a Sunday paper. So do not hesitate to say exactly what you feel about these two articles. I have cancelled the six for 1938 anyhow. If Mr. Drawbell does not want them for one of the non-Sunday papers or magazines of his group, I daresay I can place them with the Strand Magazine.Naturally I wish to be as agreeable as possible to Mr. Drawbell as he could, in virtue of our agreement, have prevented any of these six from appearing anywhere in England except in his own columns. But this he waived in the most obliging manner, and with cordial expressions about the News of the World and yourself in particular.

“I have had a contract with Lord Camrose, running over a good many years now, for the serial rights of Marlborough. Volume IV will be appearing, I suppose, in March or April in the Sunday Times. I am much obliged to you for the intimation in your letter that you will not object to this serialization, as it lies in an altogether different field. With the arrangement covering the years 1939, 1940 and 1941, added to the five now completed, I shall have been working for you for eight consecutive years. In these circumstances I shall certainly expect an invitation to the annual outing of the staff.”

Here we see both Churchill and Davies working together, with Davies not impeding Churchill and Churchill showing flexibility and fairness to The News of the World.