Lot 145
CHURCHILL (WINSTON) Typed letter signed to Robert Graves, Chartwell, 10 September 1939
Ending from 19 November 2025, 12:00 GMT
Online, London, Knightsbridge£2,000 - £3,000
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CHURCHILL (WINSTON)
Typed letter signed ("W. S. Churchill") with autograph salutation ("Dear Robert Graves"), thanking him for his kind letter of congratulation, one page, some light spotting, mounted, framed and glazed, unexamined out of frame, letter 8vo (192 x 255mm.), with frame 330 x 255mm., Chartwell, 10 September 1939
Footnotes
CHURCHILL FINDS TIME TO WRITE TO ROBERT GRAVES IN THE HECTIC EARLY DAYS OF THE WAR.
Churchill here responds to author Robert Graves' letter of congratulation on being recalled to the War Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty on 3 September, the day that war was declared. He began his duties with his customary purpose and energy, and within days he had been appointed to a War Cabinet Committee: '...We must take our place in the line... if we are to hold the Alliance together and win the war...' Churchill told this committee on September 8 (Martin Gilbert, Churchill, A Life, 2000, p.625). The day before our letter, on 9 September, the first troops of the British Expeditionary Force sailed to France.
The connection between Churchill and Graves came through Edward Marsh, Churchill's private secretary for many years, and editor of the Georgian Poetry anthologies. Marsh had been introduced to Graves by the climber George Mallory who taught Graves English at Charterhouse, and thereafter encouraged the young Graves in his writing, resulting in the publication of his first volume, Over the Brazier, in 1916. As two established writers, Graves and Churchill corresponded on literary matters throughout the war. In 1942 Churchill wrote to Graves to express his admiration for his historical novels: '...I have read very few books during this war... I find sometimes a book dwells with me for several months, and I read a chapter or two at a time... I am a great lover of narrative, in which art you excel...' (letter dated 2 May 1942, ex Forbes collection) and Graves continued to send Churchill copies of his books, including a copy of The Golden Fleece in 1945, of which Churchill wrote '...once it gets hold of you, you can not put it down...' (letter dated 27 November 1944, ex Forbes collection).
Provenance: Christie's, 'Winston Spencer Churchill: The Collection of Malcolm S. Forbes, Jr, Part I', 2 June 2010, lot 111; private collection, UK.