Winston Churchill THE ERA AND THE MAN By VIRGINIA COWLES The Universal Library GROSSET DUNLAP NEW YORK TO THE ENDURING INSPIRATION OF MY MOTHER FLORENCE JAQUITH COWLES FOREWORD IN THIS book I have attempted to tell of Mr. Churchills early days, the influences brought to bear upon him as a young man, and to present, as objectively as possible, an account of his prodigious career. I have not tried to draw a veil over the less successful periods nor, I hope, have I withheld praise and admiration for his great contributions. Mr. Churchill stands out as a titan among his fellow men. Consequently his mistakes and triumphs are often intermingled on a grandiose scale, and his personality seldom fails to draw a challenge. As a statesman he moved through four decades of tumultuous events before he reached the grand climax of his life. But in retrospect his political misfortunes seem provi dential, for without them he might not have been set apart, or spared, as Mr. Attlee once put it, to lead his country in the stirring days of 1940. When I saw Mr. Churchill at the French Embassy in 1950 and told him I was planning to write his biography he growled good-naturedly Theres nothing much in that field left unploughed. However, he did not tal into consideration the unusual fertility of the ground and I hope the reader will not be disappointed in the harvest I have been helped by the innumerable biographies and memoirs to which I have given acknow ledgment, by the newspapers and magazines of the last fifty years, and by information gathered from people whose paths at one time or another have crossed those of Mr. Churchill. A number of friends were kind enough to offer comment and criticism on thefinished work. Although I do not pretend to reflect their views in the interpretation I have given, I would like to thank Mr. Leo Amery, Mr. Robert Boothby and Mr. William Deakin for reading the book in manuscript form. VIRGINIA COWLES Kingsbridge, Steeple Ckydon, Buckingham. A CKNO WLEDGMEN TS GRATEFUL acknowledgment is made to the following publishers for some of the selections reprinted in this volume Christophers Ltd. London Incidents and Reflections by J. B. Atkins J. ML Dent Sons, Ltd. London Certain People of Importance Pillars of Society and Prophets, Priests and Kings by A. C. Gardiner Doubleday Company, Inc. Life of Lord Fisher by R. H. Bacon and Politicians and the War by Lord Beaverbrook Harcourt, Brace Company, Inc. The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill by J. M. Keynes and Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and Afterwards by Lord Riddell Henry Holt Conpany, Inc. A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Houseman Houghton Mifflin Company The Second World War by Winston S. Churchill Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. My Diaries by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt Little, Brown Company and Lord Beaverbrook War Memoirs of David Lloyd George by David Lloyd George Little, Brown Company Memories and Reflections by the Earl of Ox ford and Asquith Longmans, Green Company, Inc. Our Partnership by Beatrice Webb William Morrow Company Lifes Ebb and Flow by Frances, Countess of Warwick Nicholson Watson, Ltd. London C. F. G. Masterman by Luch Masterman and War Diary by Lord Riddell Odhams Press, Ltd. London Lord Randolph Churchill by Winston S. Churchill 3. P. Putnams Sons Great Contemporaries by Winston S. Churchill and Anglo-American Memories by George Smalley Charles Scribners Sons The Aftermath by Winston S.Churchill Amid These Storms by Winston S. Churchill, in footnotes referring to the British tide Thoughts and Adventures Marlborough by Winston S. Churchill A Roving Commission by Winston S. Churchill, in footnotes referring to the British tide My Early Life The World Crisis by Winston S. Churchill Fighting in Flanders by E...