CHURCHILL’S WORLD WAR II ENGAGEMENT DIARIES

Description

Three original oversized cards from Winston Churchill’s wartime engagement diary, which sat on his Downing Street desk throughout the war. The cards cover Churchill’s Prime Ministerial itinerary for the months of July, August, November and December 1943 and January and February 1945. Each monthly page is pasted onto a board (12 1/8 x 13 1/2 inches), double-sided, recto and verso, that is file-punched at the upper right corner.

The entries are largely in ink, with a few in pencil, all in secretarial hand (mostly John Colville’s). They detail Churchill’s minutest daily movements during critical periods of the war, including the Teheran and Yalta Conferences. The names of Churchill’s greatest wartime contemporaries, from King George VI, FDR, Stalin, Eisenhower, Chang Kai-Shek, appear throughout, often for luncheon and dinner dates.

Though lightly browned and soiled with age, the cards are nevertheless in extremely good condition overall, the inked entries quite bright and legible. They remain fascinating, historic and pricelessly rare.