The Works of WSC
A guide to the Churchill canon
The CanonIn May 1898 Churchill was stationed in Bangalore and desperate to join Kitchener's army in the Sudan. Writing to his mother he implored her to exercise her not inconsiderabe influence in finding him a place. "[T]he additional campaign will be valuable as an educational experience....- and profitable as far as finance goes as I shall write a book about it - easily and without the blunders which disfigure my first attempt".
The River War was Churchill's second published work and as such the lavishness of its two-volume production in 1899 is quite astonishing, even for an established war correspondent. However, the Daily Mail in its review of November 7th 1899 said, "To devote nearly a thousand pages to what will appear a century hence a mere episode in modern history is like setting a wheel to break a butterfly, especially as the whole story might well have been packed into 500 pages, and nothing lost". Prescient words.
By the time the second, one-volume, edition came out in 1902 much had changed in Churchill's life. He was no longer a supernumerary, a military hanger-on with a reputation as a glory hunter. In 1899, as a war correspondent, he had been able to indulge in criticism of military and political leaders, and he had indulged that freedom to the maximum. But in 1902 he was an established member of parliament - a rising star in the Conservative party and much that had been said about men who were now his colleagues now became best unsaid. Churchill ruthlessly edited the volume, cutting more than a half of its content. Since then the missing text has never been restored. Indeed it has suffered further indignities of excision, such as with the Prion edition, which in turn has sadly been used as the text for at least one of the translations. Currently the only way to read the original, entire work is to get one's hands on a copy of the first edition. Thankfully, relief is at hand with the imminent publication of the St. Augustine's Press edition due for release in early 2006. Lovingly edited by Dr. James Muller, this edition finally restores the full text and, in identifying subsequent alterations, should establish itself as the definitive reference.
The second, one-volume edition was followed by an appearance in the Nelson Shilling Library in 1916. Eyre and Spottiswoode produced five impressions of their edition between 1933 and 1951, remainder copies of the last being rebound and reissued in 1965 after Churchill's death. The fact that, of the 2600 copies of the 1951 impression, sufficient remained for rebinding in 1965 indicates that sales by this point were extremely slow. Since the 1960's several paperback editions have appeared both in the UK and the US.
Translations
Italian, Spanish and Swedish
