TYPED LETTER SIGNED by Winston Churchill
-Overwritten “Private & Personal” in Churchill’s Hand-
1949
1-page (7 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches)
Item Number: 3868
$5,000.00
Description
A singularly personal and informal letter of protest type-written to Walter Layton, Chairman of The News Chronicle on 28 Hyde Park Gate letterhead (7 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches), dated 23 January, 1949.
”Private & Personal” [overwritten in ink, in Churchill’s hand , as well as:] ”My dear Walter:”
I chanced to see the enclosed cartoon and thought it quite outside ordinary limits. I was astonished that a newspaper you control should harbour it. … If this spirit expresses ‘Liberal Ideals’ they are quite under the counter. Will you kindly return to me the cartoon after you have seen it.
Yours sincerely,
Winston S. Churchill
The letter is in very good condition, hole-punched at the upper right corner. The cartoon in question is not present.
WALTER THOMAS LAYTON (1884-1966) was Chairman of The News Chronicle from 1930-1950. A former editor of The Economist (1922-1938), he had been Churchill’s statistical officer at the Ministry of Munitions during World War I and ran the Joint War Production staff from 1942-43.