CHURCHILL, Winston S. Autograph letter signed to Sir Algernon West, 4th Hussars, India, 18 February 1898, 7 pages, 8vo. Provenance: L.C.R. West collection; Sotheby's, 24 July 1987, lot 301.
THE YOUNG MAN IN A HURRY. 'I have had many vivid experiences, some of which you may have heard from my mother. Nor does the future display the prospect of monotony'; he is hopeful of playing a role in the ongoing campaign [at the Northern frontier in Tirah, which he did -- considerably to the irritation of the military hierarchy], though in the meantime there is a polo tournament to play, 'and thence on to Peshawar -- on the lookout for a job. Thus I run about this country in great rapidity ...'; he refers to his first book, The Malakand Field Force ('I have to express myself with some moderation -- lest I should be mistaken for one of your Radicals'), and concludes with a rather brutal reference to the plague in Bombay and the south 'which by the way has killed 70,000 persons ... Nature applies her own checks to populations -- and a philosopher may watch unmoved the destruction of some of those superfluous millions, whose life must of necessity be destitute of pleasure'.
Writings of Sir Winston Churchill © Estate of Winston S. Churchill
CHURCHILL, Winston S. Autograph letter signed to Sir Algernon West, 4th Hussars, India, 18 February 1898, 7 pages, 8vo. Provenance: L.C.R. West collection; Sotheby's, 24 July 1987, lot 301.
THE YOUNG MAN IN A HURRY. 'I have had many vivid experiences, some of which you may have heard from my mother. Nor does the future display the prospect of monotony'; he is hopeful of playing a role in the ongoing campaign [at the Northern frontier in Tirah, which he did -- considerably to the irritation of the military hierarchy], though in the meantime there is a polo tournament to play, 'and thence on to Peshawar -- on the lookout for a job. Thus I run about this country in great rapidity ...'; he refers to his first book, The Malakand Field Force ('I have to express myself with some moderation -- lest I should be mistaken for one of your Radicals'), and concludes with a rather brutal reference to the plague in Bombay and the south 'which by the way has killed 70,000 persons ... Nature applies her own checks to populations -- and a philosopher may watch unmoved the destruction of some of those superfluous millions, whose life must of necessity be destitute of pleasure'.
Writings of Sir Winston Churchill © Estate of Winston S. Churchill
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