Randolph S. Churchill and, Helmut Gernsheim, editors | Churchill: His Life in Photographs. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1955

Randolph S. Churchill and, Helmut Gernsheim, editors

Churchill: His Life in Photographs. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1955

8vo. Over 400 illustrations. Original red cloth INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY CHURCHILL on the front free endpaper, original pictorially printed dust jacket; spine just bumped, minor sunning to cloth, jacket worn with three-inch loss to cover panel, spine panel taped. [With:] Second jacket; some toning and chipping to edges. Calling card signed and dated (“Randolph S. Churchill 1888”) by Randolph’s namesake, his father’s father, Lord Randolph Churchill, laid-in.

FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY RANDOLPH CHURCHILL TO HIS FIRST WIFE, PAMELA HARRIMAN: “PAMELA WITH LOVE FROM RANDOLPH 20 MAY 1955.”

The very first Churchill photobiography and an excellent one, with illuminating captions by Winston’s son, Randolph. Pamela Digby Churchill Heyward Harriman, the British-born daughter of the 11th Baron Digby, was the wartime bride of Churchill’s son, Randolph, and the mother of Winston Churchill’s first grandson. Divorced from Randolph in 1946, she was notorious for her affairs with prominent and wealthy men, including Edward R. Murrow, Averell Harriman, William Paley and John Hay "Jock" Whitney (during the war); Prince Aly Khan, Alfonso de Portago, Gianni Agnelli and Baron Elie de Rothschild (after). She married the Broadway producer, Leland Heyward in 1960 and then, after his death, resumed her relationship with the 79-year-old Harriman, finally marrying him in 1971. Their marriage brought her into the political social life of Washington, D.C., which led, after Harriman’s death, to her being named U.S. Ambassador to France by President Clinton in 1993. She died in Paris in 1997. Her epitaph was essentially written by her former lover, the media magnate William Paley, who called Harriman, “the greatest courtesan of the century.” Winston Churchill adored her, but strictly platonically.

REFERENCE:

Za170; R126

PROVENANCE:

Pamela Digby Churchill Heyward Harriman (inscription)