Step by Step

1st Danish 1939

Step by Step is the compilation in volume form of 82 fortnightly newspaper articles written by Churchill between March 1936 and May 1939, dealing exclusively with foreign affairs. In them one sees the drift to war as clearly and as urgently as in any other of his writings. Originally the articles were contracted to the Evening Standard. However, in March 1938 the editor, R.J. Thompson, wrote to Churchill cancelling their arrangement. "[A]s it is my duty to be completely frank, it has been evident that your views on foreign affairs and the part which this country should play are entirely opposed to those held by us". An indignant Churchill lost no time in contacting Lord Camrose, and effective from April 1938 the contract was transferred to the Daily Telegraph. In his reply to Thompson he commented acidly "I rather thought that Lord Beaverbrook prided himself upon forming a platform in the Evening Standard for various opinions including of course his own....It may interest you to know that I could have placed the articles in three, if not four, different quarters at the same fee, and I understand that the provincial papers, who must now be struck off, expressed regret".

Lord Camrose, while willing to pick up the contract for the articles, for which Churchill was receiving £70 apiece, was clearly no more eager than Thompson to provide an unconditional platform for Churchill's views. "It is a little difficult for us to enter into a definite agreement for any lengthy period to publish a series of articles on political subjects, having regard to the fact that our policies might well be at serious variance. I would be willing to try the experiment for six months.... undertaking to pay you for the whole 13 articles, but reserving the right of non-publication in such cases as we so decided".

While it sold well initially (approximately 15,000 copies by November 1940) Step by Step suffers from the same problem as Churchill's other journalistic productions. The immediacy of the content does not lend itself to well to subsequent reissue. Furthermore, unlike with earlier volumes the articles were not stitched together and polished for volume appearance. Yesterday's newspapers are, ultimately, no more than that. First published by Thornton Butterworth and Putnam in 1939, and then by Macmillan in 1942 and Odhams in 1947, Step by Step has only been reprinted once since - in 1971 by the Books for Libraries press. Similarly, while the work has been widely translated into Danish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish all appeared within the same span of 1939-47. A notable exception, however, and perhaps the oddest translation in the canon, is the Norwegian Mot Stupet, a volume which appeared in 1963. The scarcity of this volume very probably reflects the contemporary interest among Norwegians in the subject matter.

Collectors looking to own only one copy of this work are advised to avoid the Macmillan edition as it represents an incomplete text. Churchill had in the past shown himself perfectly willing to edit the content of his books to suit political expediency, as with The River War and Great Contemporaries. When the Macmillan edition appeared in 1942 Britain was allied with Stalin's Russia and consequently two articles critical of Communism (Enemies to the Left and The Communist Schism) were dropped. Both were restored in the Odham's edition of 1947.

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