MOVING CHURCHILL #3: William Manchester
Inescapably, as we look forward to our impending move, our thoughts also tend back to the many grand visitors who have come through these doors over the past 43 years. This week, we reflect on one of the first.
During the first months of Chartwell Booksellers’ existence in 1983, William Manchester came to the store quietly one afternoon to sign copies of the opening volume of his new Churchill biography, THE LAST LION: Visions of Glory 1874-1932; maintaining that he was “just too shy” to do a large-scale public event. Five years later, he again returned quietly to sign copies of his new Volume 2, THE LAST LION: Alone 1932-1940.
By the time the final volume of Mr. Manchester’s magisterial trilogy at last arrived in 2012 — THE LAST LION: Defender of the Realm 1940-1965 — William Manchester was long gone, having passed in 2004. His designated successor, Paul Reid, who had completed the third and final volume, was very much up for a public event and joined us on November 14, 2014 for a Chartwell Booksellers-sponsored overflow evening at the Yale Club with Boris Johnson, then celebrating his new book, THE CHURCHILL FACTOR: How One Man Made History, along with the now completed Manchester/Reid LAST LION trilogy.
It was quite a night and you can watch it HERE on our YouTube channel, as well as view actor John Lithgow (who played Winston Churchill on The Crown) spectacularly read a dramatic passage from Manchester’s THE LAST LION: Alone 1874-1940 for our 40th Readings at Chartwell Booksellers anniversary series a few years back. Just click HERE.
All copies signed for us by Mr. Manchester sold out long ago, but as part of our impending-move Sale, we are pleased to share the following books, all in mint condition, at special prices.
THE LAST LION: “VISIONS OF GLORY” & “ALONE”
Deluxe Two-Volume Slipcased Set
$100 / $50
The first two (Manchester-authored) volumes of his posthumously completed trilogy, as issued, commemoratively, without dust jackets in a handsome pictorial slipcase.
New, still in the publisher’s shrink-wrap.
THE LAST LION: “DEFENDER OF THE REALM 1940-1965”
by William Manchester and Paul Reid
First American Edition Signed by Paul Reid
$150 / $80
THE CHURCHILL FACTOR: How One Man Made History
First American Edition Signed by Boris Johnson
$550 / $3o0
And don’t forget our other Sale books:
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WRITINGS OF SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL
by Ronald I. Cohen
.
A DAUGHTER’S TALE
First American Edition Signed by Mary Soames
.
HIS FATHER’S SON: The Life of Randolph Churchill
First American Edition Signed by Winston S. Churchill [the grandson]
First English Paperback Edition
.
CHASING CHURCHILL: The Travels of Winston Churchill
First American Edition Signed by Celia Sandys
.
CHURCHILL: BBC/PBS Companion Volume
First American Edition Signed by Celia Sandys
EDWINA SANDYS ART
First American Edition Signed by Edwina Sandys
MOVING CHURCHILL
We will continue to share updates about our impending move as we have them.
Plus many more special sale books, weekly.
(Winston Churchill moved some 20 times in his adult life. We are sharing each of them here.
One-by-one.
Just for the record.)
Move #3
33 ECCLESTON SQUARE
In 1909, a pregnant Clementine Churchill moved her husband to a proper, family-sized, neoclassical town- house in a large square behind Victoria Station at No. 33 Eccleston Square — just a ten-minute drive
to the Houses of Parliament.
More to come.
With our thanks and best wishes,
Chartwell Booksellers