MOVING CHURCHILL #8: Richard Langworth
The eminent Churchillian, Richard M. Langworth, had a quixotic relationship with Chartwell Booksellers. One of the finest Churchill scholars of our time, he started out a regular customer in our earliest days of the 1980s. Then, as he assumed full control of the International Churchill Society, he also created his own side-rare book business: Churchillbooks. From that point forward, the name Chartwell Booksellers never appeared in print anywhere in I.C.S. literature, including and especially in the I.C.S. monthly magazine Finest Hour. Not ever. Mr. Langworth also thwarted every effort by his New York members to create a New York chapter of I.C.S., for reasons that remained…well, impenetrable.
This all came to an end in 2004 when a new Chairman of I.C.S. (nee-The Churchill Centre) petitioned us to purchase Churchillbooks from Mr. Langworth. Which we did.
Our relations with him instantly resumed some of their long-ago collegiality.
He wrote some terrific books; invaluable additions to the About-Churchill canon. We always carried them. And we offer many of them to you now, as part of our moving Sale.
A CONNOISSEUR’S GUIDE TO THE BOOKS OF SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL
First Edition
Price: $150 / Sale: $65
Signed: $250/ Sale: $125
CHURCHILL BY HIMSELF: The Definitive Collection of Quotations
First Edition
Price: $75 / Sale: $50
CHURCHILL IN HIS OWN WORDS
Signed First Edition
Price: $150/ Sale: $75
MOVING CHURCHILL
We will continue to share updates weekly.
Plus many more special sale books.
(Winston Churchill moved some 20 times in his adult life. We are also sharing each of these.
One-by-one. Just for the record.)
Move #8
LULLENDEN MANOR
In the spring of 1917, having survived the trenches and returned home to 33 Eccleston Square, Winston Churchill bought Lullenden Manor, a rambling Tudor house set in 27-acres of Sussex farmland. This was far more than a matter of recreation. The war had followed Churchill back to London; zeppelin and bombing raids were making life there increasingly hazardous. Seeking to secure a safe haven for his family, Churchill purchased Lullenden for £5,500. The house was really too grand for his needs—and for his purse—with nine bedrooms and a soaring, double-height, vaulted, timbered great hall lit by a wrought-iron electrolier. The date 1624 was cut into a massive oak support beam. The fireplace was eight feet wide, and its iron fireback bore an even earlier date: 1582.
More to come.
With our thanks and best wishes,
Chartwell Booksellers