by David Lough
23. 11 Nov 1897 LyRC ltr to WSC, 1C2:832–3.
24. 31 Dec 1897 WSC ltr to LyRC, 1C2:840–1.
25. 7 Jan 1898 A. Watt ltr to LyRC, 1C2:852.
26. 20 Jan 1898 LyRC ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/8/125.
27. 27 Jan 1898 LyRC ltr to WSC, 1C2:880.
28. 26 Jan 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/24/26.
29. 18, 22 Mar 1898 WSC ltrs to LyRC, CHAR 28/24/49, 54. Longmans Statement Book, MS 1393/F1, pp. 169–71, RULSC. Churchill’s first royalty cheque added £46 to his £50 advance; British sales were only 2,671 copies in fifteen months. Churchill had been expecting to earn £300.
30. 19 Jan 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/24/20.
31. 20 Jan 1898 LyRC ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/8/125.
32. 13 Jan 1898 LyRC ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/8/122.
33. 14 Jan 1898 LyRC ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/8/124. Neither the papers nor Lumley’s accompanying letter survive, but the scheme’s features are reconstructed from Churchill’s subsequent correspondence with his mother and the duke of Marlborough.
34. 28 Jan 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, 1C2:868–9.
35. This is the proportion which Churchill quoted, for example to his cousin Shane Leslie – see S. Leslie, Long Shadows, p.16.
36. 28 Feb 1915 E. Manisty account, as Receiver to Norwich Union Life Assurance Society, CHAR 28/124 1–4. Interest on the loan was 4¾ per cent a year (£807); the life insurance premium on Jennie’s life cost £573 a year.
37. 30 Jan 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/24/33.
38. 30 January 1898 WSC letter to JSC, CHAR 28/152/144.
4. The World’s Highest-Paid War Correspondent, 1899–1900
1. 16 Feb 1898 WSC ltr to JSC, CHAR 28/152/148.
2. 18 Mar 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/24/49.
3. 27 Mar 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 24/28/65.
4. WSC, My Early Life, p. 165.
5. 25 April 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, 1C2:922.
6. 3 May 1898 WSC ltr to L. Leslie, CHUR 1/44/215–17.
7. 1 Jun 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, 1C2:941–3.
8. 10 May 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/245/3.
9. D. Kynaston, The City of London 2:146, 248, 252–3, 270, 301.
10. WSC, My Early Life, p. 182.
11. 10 Aug 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/25/31.
12. U/d July 1898 WSC note to LyRC, CHAR 28/25/57.
13. 30 Jul 1898 WSC ltr to DoM, 28/25/27 enc. with WSC ltr to LyRC CHAR 28/25/30. Churchill’s uncle John Leslie refused to give the second guarantee; one of Lord Randolph literary executors Ernest Beckett accepted instead.
14. 5 Aug 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/25/28–9.
15. 24, 26 Aug 1898 WSC ltrs to LyRC, CHAR 28/25/36.
16. 28 Oct 1898 WSC ltr to M. Frewen, CHUR 2/519/459.
17. 1899 Longmans’ royalty ledger, MS 1393/E5/473, RULSC. As for The River War, there was no advance, but the British royalty was 20 per cent after sales of 1,000 copies, the US 15 per cent and ‘colonial sales’ earned Churchill 3d. per copy.
18. 1899 Longmans royalty ledger, MS 1393/E5/469, RULSC. If Churchill accepted an advance of £100, his royalty rate was 20 per cent after 1,500 copies.
19. 27 Oct 1898 WSC ltr to A. Watt, A. P. Watt Papers, NYPL.
20. Nov 1898 Cox & Co. statement, CHAR 1/21. Interest and life insurance premiums cost £300 a year. From March 1899 Churchill paid his brother £75 monthly (or almost monthly), but there are few other signs that the account was used for the purposes intended. Churchill sent £100 to King & Co. in Bombay; repaid £325 to his mother; and sent £50 to Palmer, his tailor, £12 to Hatchard, the booksellers, and £2 to Waterlow, his stationery supplier. There was nothing for Messrs Tautz, Bernau, Sowter or Day, still owed some £100 each. The Special Account was closed in October 1900, its balance of £292 transferred to Churchill’s Private Account.
21. WSC, My Early Life, pp. 195–6.
22. 29 Dec 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/25/55.
23. 19 Jan 1899 WSC letter to LyRC, CHAR 28/26/3. Churchill was to record a profit (after expenses) of more than £8,000 when the book was published seven years later.
24. Mar 1899 WSC ltr to P. Plowden, cited the Observer (9 November 2003).
25. 17 Jul 1899 WSC ltr to A. Harmsworth, Northcliffe Papers, M/s Add 62156/1, BL.
26. Frances, Countess of Warwick, Life’s Ebb and Flow, p. 141.
27. 22 Aug 1899 WSC ltr to LyRC, 1C2:1043–4.
28. Oct 1899 Longmans Group Papers, MS 1393/2/2371343/ii, RULSC. British royalties were set at 15 per cent on the first 3,000 copies; 20 per cent up to 10,000 copies; 25 per cent thereafter. Longmans, Green & Co. also published in the US and Canada at a royalty of 15 per cent.
29. M. Gilbert, Churchill and the Jews, p. 4. Lord Rothschild gave £150; Cassel £100.
30. 1907 Lumley & Lumley account, CHAR 1/58/1. The insurer was Norwich Union.
31. 1899 Randolph Payne & Sons account, 1C2:1052. Costing £27, the consignment included eighteen bottles of ten-year-old whisky, six bottles each of port, vermouth and eau de vie.
32. 24 Oct 1899 Longmans Book Notes, Impression Book, MS 1393/H32/234, Royalty Ledger E5/469, RULSC. Longmans, Green & Co. printed 2,000 copies of the two volumes. It sold 1,306 copies in Britain before Christmas (earning Churchill £352 before agent’s commission), and another 1,000 early in 1900.
33. 30 Oct WSC ltr to JSC, 1C2:1056.
34. WSC, My Early Life, p. 315.
35. L. Field, Bendor, pp. 12, 27, 29, 35.
36. 11 Apr 1900, CHAR 1/26/176. Generals Hamilton and Nicholson helped plead his cause.
37. WSC reminiscence, cited Lord Moran, Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, p. 189.
38. 25 Apr 1898 WSC ltr to LyRC, 1C2:922; 14 Mar 1898 Longmans Book Notes, MS 1393/L9, 15.42, RULSC. Longmans, Green & Co.’s sales notes summarize the plot: Laurania was an imaginary republic in the Mediterranean, ruled by an able despot Molaro, who was opposed by the rebel leader Savrola, ‘a man of culture and a very persuasive orator’. When Molaro sent his beautiful wife to parley with and distract Savrola, she fell for him instead. 1898–1912 Longmans sales ledger, MS 1393/F1, pp. 169–171, RULSC. British sales were 4,704 up to the end of May 1900, but only 170 in the following year; 3,672 were sold in the colonies. Savrola earned Churchill royalties of £306 in its first accounting period.
39. 10 May 1900 WSC Introduction to London to Ladysmith, Longmans MS1393/2/72/398, RULSC.
40. 16 Feb 1900 A. Watt ltr to WSC, CHAR 8/10/1.
41. 21 Mar 1900 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/26/52.
42. 1 May 1900 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/26/54.
43. 22 May 1900 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/26/53.
44. 12 May 1900 LyRC ltr to WSC, 1C2:1176.
45. Ibid.; 15 May 1900 Notes on Books, Longmans MS 1393/L9, RULSC.
46. Longmans royalty ledger and sales ledger MS 1393/E5/481–2 and F1/169–171, RULSC. Compiled from twenty-seven letters and telegrams despatched by Churchill to The Morning Post between 26 Oct 1899 and 10 Mar 1900, 7,571 copies sold within two weeks in Britain and a further 6,125 during the next year. Sales then slowed so sharply that they reached fewer than 15,000 before war broke out in 1914. In the US the book sold 1,850 copies. R. Cohen, Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill, pp. 92–3. Churchill’s royalties failed to reach £1,000.
47. 9 Jun 1900 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/26/59.
48. L. Amery, Diaries, p. 17.
5. Bachelor, Author, MP, 1900–5
1. G. Cornwallis-West in conversation with Shane Leslie, cited A. Leslie, Jennie: Life of Lady Randolph Churchill, p. 254.
2. Author’s calculations, 24 May 1900 E. Cassel ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/23/134. Churchill had earned £2,050 from The Morning Post, £1,500 from his three recently published books and £500 from Sir Ernest Cassel’s investments.
3. 31 Jul 1900 WSC ltr to JSC, CHAR 28/152/190–5.
4. 26 Jul 1900 Longmans Agreement with WSC, MS1393/2/237/1343 iii; Longmans Book Notes MS 1393/L9/p.254; Longmans statement ledger and royalty ledger, MS 1393/F1, E5/481–2; RULSC. C
ompiled from seventeen dispatches to The Morning Post between 31 March and 14 June 1900, with four unpublished letters added. British sales reached 6,216 over ten months after publication to 31 May 1901; then fewer than 200 in the following year. Churchill’s first royalty was £339. In America, records are sparse but R. Cohen speculates fewer copies sold than the 3,000 for London to Ladysmith; 533 copies remained unsold in 1905.
5. Election result 1C2:1208.
6. Ibid.; 27 Oct 1900 WSC ltr to LyRC 1C2:1213–4. The duke was to pay £400 of Churchill’s £1,450 expenses and meet his annual registration fee of £100.
7. 8 Sept 1900 WSC ltr to L. Leslie, 1C2: 1199. See also S. Buczacki, Churchill & Chartwell, p. 21.
8. 29 Oct 1900 The Lecture Agency Schedule, CHAR 1/27/13–15. Receipts totalled £3,782. Christie suggested a second tour in the spring of 1901, covering twelve more cities such as Nottingham and Derby, where Churchill could expect to earn £100. There was a further list of eighteen towns where he could expect £50–75 net. Churchill resumed the tour in March 1901, earning an extra £690. In the autumn of 1892 he made a third tour of thirteen towns, grossing £479 (before agency commission and his travelling expenses). See 1/31/59, 90.
9. 22 Nov 1900 WSC schedule, CHAR 1/21. Churchill’s cash at Cox & Co. totalled £1,033; he had £3,050 invested with Cassel; and £1,000 on its way by cheque from earlier lectures. Other amounts listed included £590 royalties due from Longmans and £1,200 to be earned from future lectures. A ‘Prospective’ category included the duke of Marlborough’s £400 for Churchill’s election expenses and £500 from his publisher.
10. 19 Nov 1900, CHAR 1/27/6. Including solicitor’s fees, Churchill’s debt to Thomas Briggs & Sons was £25.
11. The Oldham Deaf and Dumb Society, Oldham Evangelical Free Church Society, Lancashire and Cheshire Working Men’s Association, The Boys’ Brigade Oldham Branch, The Oldham Temperance Mission, Oldham Rifle Club and Oldham & District Ornithological Society pressed Churchill to offer subscriptions which varied from ten shillings to two guineas a year.
12. 21 Dec 1900 WSC to LyRC, 1C2:1222. Takings varied from £10 in Hartford to £120 in Philadelphia. The full list is at 1C2:1222.
13. 1 Jan 1901 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/26/80. Door takings exceeded $2,000, but Pond had sold the evening for a flat fee of $500, of which Churchill’s share was $350.
14. 1 Jan 1901 WSC to LyRC, CHAR 28/26/80.
15. WSC, My Early Life, p. 358.
16. E. Tautz & Sons Ltd. Account, CHAR 1/31/25: Tautz (breeches and trouser makers, military tailors) was paid the balance of his £144 account including 3 guineas for white cashmere racing breeches, 5 guineas for a chocolate satin racing jacket and matching racing cap, 6 guineas for a black angola dinner jacket with silk shirt, all supplied in 1895 or 1896; more recently eight jackets, nine vests and alterations to the waistline of fourteen pairs of trousers; A. F Bernau & Sons account 1/31/24: Bernau (tailor and habit maker) received £145 for items dating back to 1897, including two blue and brown jacket suits, each costing £7.10s.; a dress suit for 10 guineas; and a drab check Cheviot shooting suit for £7.15s.
17. 14 Feb 1900 WSC letter to LyRC, 2C1:27.
18. G. Cornwallis-West, Edwardian Hey-Days, p. 132.
19. U/d 1906 A.Anning Bills Paid in 1905, CHAR 1/55. Miss Anning lists spending items totalling £1,580, but she includes £500 sent to Sir E. Cassel for investment. The author has subtracted this amount, then added £275 for Churchill’s annual rent and property taxes at 12 Bolton Street to which he moved in late 1905.
20. J. W. Allen (bag manufacturer) account, CHAR 1/47/25.
21. F. Smythson account, CHAR 1/31/14.
22. Ranelagh Club account, CHAR 1/31/58, 68, 79; J. Salter account,1/31/2.
23. 13 Mar 1901 WSC ltr to LyRC, CHAR 28/26/96. Jennie helped Churchill to hire a shorthand typist at a cost of 3s.6d. an hour.
24. U/d J. Brabazon ltr to J. Leslie 1C2:1209. Churchill and Pamela agreed to remain ‘best friends’ before he set off in unrequited pursuit of the American actress Ethel Barrymore, and later Muriel Wilson, heiress to a shipping fortune, to whom he proposed in early 1904. She turned Churchill down on the grounds of his poor financial prospects.
25. G. Cornwallis-West, Edwardian Hey-Days, pp. 119–20.
26. 12 Nov 1901 DoM ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/33/12
27. Lumley & Lumley 1906 account, CHAR 1/58/5. Five years later Lumley sent the account for payment to Churchill, not the duke.
28. Lumley & Lumley 1906 account, CHAR 1/58/1.
29. 15 Aug 1902 WSC letter to LyRC, CHAR 28/27/2.
30. Jul 1903 Andrew Stone account, CHAR 1/41/56.
31. M. Daunton, Trusting Leviathan, p. 336, citing L. Chiozza, Money (1907).
32. 19 Jun 1903 Lumley & Lumley ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/38/32; 1902/3 HM Inland Revenue account, 1/41/84.
33. R. Grenfell to C. Grenfell, cited D. Kynaston, The City of London 2:398.
34. 22 Aug 1904 WSC letter to LyRC, 2C1:450–1.
35. 22 Jan 1905 LyRC letter to WSC, CHAR 1/50/76.
36. 22 Aug WSC letter to LyRC, 2C1:450–1.
37. P. Clarke, Mr Churchill’s Profession, p. 55, citing Delaney, Literature, Money and the Marketplace, pp. 107–15.
38. 29 May WSC ltr to Elibank, 2C2:393.
39. 27 May 1905 Lady Wimborne ltr to WSC, 2C1:393.
40. Feb 1905 Warner, Shepherd & Wade account, CHAR 1/52/3.
41. CHAR 1/52/11; 1/54/20, 45, 53. The first and second ponies, unnamed, cost 125 and 100 guineas; ‘Redskin’ and ‘Sweep’ cost £100 and £115.10s.
42. 7 Oct 1905 F. Harris ltr to WSC, 2C1:465–6.
43. 25 Oct 1905 F. Harris ltr to WSC, CHAR 8/21/88. Cassell & Co. bid £2,500, on account of a 30 per cent royalty; 24 Oct 1905 F. Harris ltr to WSC, 8/21/86.
44. 30 Oct 1905 F. Macmillan ltr to WSC, CHAR 8/21/92–3.
45. 30 Oct 1905 WSC ltr to F. Macmillan, Macmillan Archive, M/S Add 55245/2/91, BL.
46. 31 Oct 1905 Longmans letter to WSC, CHAR 8/22/1.
47. 2 Nov 1905 F. Macmillan letter to WSC, 2C1:480–1.
48. 3 Nov 1905 WSC ltr to F. Macmillan, Macmillan Archive, M/S Add 55245/2/98–100, BL.
49. 5 Nov 1905 Bangs ltr to C. Scribner, Scribner’s Archive, Author Files I C0101 Box 31, M/S Div, BLPU.
50. 13 Nov 1905 WSC ltr to F. Macmillan, Macmillan Archive, M/s Add 55245/2/106–8, BL.
51. 15 Dec 1905 WSC ltr to F. Macmillan, Macmillan Archive, M/s Add 55245/2/118–9, BL.
52. Churchill polled 5,639 votes to his Conservative opponent’s 4,398. Nationally, the Liberals won 377 seats compared to the Conservatives’ total of 157.
53. 5 Feb 1906 F. Macmillan ltr to WSC, 2C1:492. Publication date was 3 January 1906. Macmilllan printed 6,250 copies in Britain, where the two volumes sold for a combined price of £1.18s. ($9 in the US).
54. 27, 30 Apr 1906 WSC corresp with F. Macmillan, Macmillan Archive, M/s Add 55245/2/138–9, BL; CHAR 8/24/153–5. Sales to the end of April totalled 5,777: a chart (8/24/39) shows their decline from an intial 2,300 a week to an average of 576 a week for five weeks, then 83 a week for the next five weeks and finally to 30 a week in April. American sales over the same period totalled 603 copies.
55. F. Macmillan, Mark Longman Library, RULSC.
56. 6 Jun 1906 WSC ltr to F. Macmillan, Macmillan Archive, M/s Add 55245/2/140, BL.
57. HM Inland Revenue recognized that authors’ income was irregular, so allowed them to spread a book’s profit for tax purposes over three years: Churchill’s 1906/7 income tax return, submitted in February 1908, therefore included £2,417 of literary profits.
58. 12 Apr 1906 W. Turner Lord & Co account, CHAR 1/63/40, 91.
59. 31 Dec 1906 Hatchard Booksellers account, CHAR 1/69/15. For other booksellers’ bills (and books bought), see 1/63–9. Hatchard’s list ran to four pages; Churchill imported 4 cwt. of books from France.
60. 1906 Harrods account CHAR 1/63/104: Harrods’ items cost £80; 1/69/2 Druce account: linen and soft furnishings from Dru
ce cost £120.
61. 31 May 1906 J. Smith account, CHAR 1/63/71; Mar 1906 National Telephone, Westminister Electric Supply, Gas Light & Coke Co. accounts, 1/63/31, 26, 33.
62. May 1906 Mrs Thornley account January–April, CHAR 1/63/88.
6. Junior Minister and Marriage, 1906–8
1. 22 Mar 1906 Wickwar & Co. account, CHAR 1/63/38.
2. A. Anning Accounts Paid in 1906, CHAR 1/55; Ministerial Salaries factsheet M6 revised Sep 2011, House of Commons Information Office. The author has adjusted Miss Anning’s record to exclude building works, but to include a full year of rent, income tax and amounts Churchill paid ‘on account’ for wine and cigars.
3. 21 Aug 1906 WSC ltr to EM, Marsh papers, EMAR 2, CAC.
4. 26 Aug 1906 WSC ltr to JSC, 2C1:573–4.
5. 14 Sep 1906 WSC ltr to JSC, CHAR 28/152/203.
6. 26 Aug 1906 WSC letter to JSC 2C2:573–4. In December 1906 James Shepherd & Co.’s list of stock exchange prices shows only five shares (of more than 200 quoted) to be those of British-based industrial companies. See D. Kynaston, The City of London 2:460–1, 468.
7. 1 Sep 1906 WSC ltr to LyRC, 2C2:578–9.
8. G. Cornwallis-West, Edwardian Hey-Days, pp. 158–9.
9. 19 Aug 1906 DoW ltr to WSC, CHAR 1/56/30.
10. 18 Sep 1906 LyRC ltr to WSC, CHAR 28/1/56.
11. 22 Jun, 6 Jul 1864 marchioness of Londonderry, epitome of will and probate valuation, CHAR 1/93/3–4.
12. 13 Nov 1906; 3 Jan, 7 Feb 1907; 16, 18 Feb 1921 T. Lumley ltrs to WSC, CHAR 1/57/19; 1/68/1–2, 4; 1/151/5–6, 7–8. Churchill’s valuation, carried out by The Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company, was £4,595, £170 higher: a compromise figure of £4,500 was agreed.
13. 9 Oct 1906 WSC ltr to H. G. Wells, H. G. Wells Papers, University of Illinois C-238-2, cited R. Toye, Lloyd George and Churchill, p. 56.
14. 11 Oct 1906 WSC speech St Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, reprinted 1909 WSC, Liberalism and the Social Problem, p. 78, 82–3.
15. G. Beare, Index to the Strand Magazine 1891–1950 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press), p. xviii. Churchill was to receive another £500 for a book collected from the articles and £30 for suitable photographs.
16. 21 Aug 1907 WSC to LyRC, CHAR 28/27/67.