The Dream by Winston S. Churchill, with an Introduction by Richard M. Langworth and Afterword by Winston S. Churchill (the author's namesake grandson) - 2005

Delray Beach, Florida: Levenger Press, 2005. Hardcover. The Dream is Churchill's revealing essay about a ghostly reunion with his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, in which Winston recounts the world events that have transpired since his father's death - without revealing his own role in them. Here is the beautiful Levenger Press edition, a near-fine copy with no previous ownership marks and no reportable flaws save for perhaps a trivial hint of shelf wear to the bottom edges.

The Dream was first published a year after Churchill's death, on 30 January 1966, in the Sunday Telegraph. This extremely attractive edition was produced by Levenger Press in 2005. It is bound in blue-gray leather stamped in silver. The cover bears a drawing by Churchill's daughter. It is an oversize book, measuring 8.75 x 8.75 inches. In addition to the original text it contains a facsimile reproduction of a 2-page letter from a young Winston Churchill to his father, an Introduction by Richard M. Langworth, and an Afterword by Churchill's namesake grandson, Winston S. Churchill.

Winston Churchill's father, Lord Randolph, died in January 1895 at age 45 following the spectacular collapse of both his health and political career. His son Winston was 20 years old. A few years later, Churchill would seek permission to write his father's biography and then spend two and a half years researching and writing - a major literary effort, but apparently an emotional one as well. Of the work, Churchill wrote to Lord Rosebery on 11 September 1902 "It is all most interesting to me - and melancholy too" (R. Churchill, WSC, Companion Volume II, Part 1, p.438). Of course history and longevity would dramatically favor the son, but when Randolph died, Winston dwelt very much in his father's shadow, both emotionally and in terms of the political career to which he already aspired.

It is in this small, intimate piece of writing that we catch Churchill with that shadow on the eve of his 73rd birthday. According to Churchill, a "foggy afternoon in November 1947" found him in his "studio at the cottage down the hill at Chartwell" attempting to paint a copy of a damaged portrait of Lord Randolph when he turned around to find his father sitting in a red leather armchair, looking just as Churchill "had seen him in his prime." What ensued was a conversation about what had - and had not - changed since Randolph's time, ranging from trivialities and individual personalities to politics and the broad sweep of world affairs. Churchill, of course, never reveals his role in much of this history.

Churchill's summary observations and appraisals to his father make a worthwhile study in themselves. But these are perhaps overshadowed by the emotional overtones which psychologists and sentimentalists will doubtless continue to parse for years to come. His family called it "The Dream." Churchill titled it simply "Private Article." Though he was seldom stinting with his words or their publication, Churchill locked the essay in a box where it remained, willed to his wife. Churchill died on 24 January 1965 - the same day his father died seventy years before.

Reference: Cohen A288.4