October 17, 2008

Churchill: A Concise Bibliography, by Buckley Barrett. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, Bibliographies and Indexes in World History series, Number 50. 216 pages, hardbound, published at $70.

Reviewed by Mark Weber

Mr. Weber is a Churchill book collector and dealer in Tucson.

    The current interest in things Churchillian has generated a considerable amount of bibliographic activity. After thirty years of relying solely on Woods, Churchill bibliophiles now have Langworth’s excellent Connoisseur’s Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill in 1998, reissued as a second edition in 2000, two new bibliographies in 2000, and the hope for both Zoller and Cohen to publish in the near future. As books about books tend to generate interest in books, they are good for the book business and I should therefore welcome all such contributions. As I read this book, my initial reactions to the chapters on books by Churchill were negative, but as I got into the sections about Churchill, I warmed to Barrett and his book.

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    The author has adopted an organizational structure based on subject matter rather than alphabetical or chronological listing. Thus the books “by” Churchill are divided into groups of “Collections, Selections,” “Histories,” and “Miscellaneous,” with further subdivisions in each group. Barrett manages to corral most of Churchill’s books, though Painting as a Pastime is nowhere listed in single-volume form. But he also omits numerous first appearances, such as the Grabhorn Press Addresses Delivered in 1940, while making room for unimportant speech extracts like Winston Churchill Prime Minister (AC20). Pamphlet works are few, and seem arbitrarily selected. Included is the 18-page Parliamentary Government and the Economic Problem (AC11); absent is the far more important, 32-page For Liberalism and Free Trade (Woods A11). Two Churchill Center publications, The Chartwell Bulletins (AE1) and The Dream (CA1), are included; but there’s no mention of The Orders, Decorations and Medals of Sir Winston Churchill, The Churchill- Conover Correspondence, Churchill’s London, The Boer Conspiracy, 28 Hyde Park Gate, Young Winston, An Uncomfortable Hero, or the six volumes of Churchill Proceedings.

    Within each subdivision, the entries are arranged alphabetically by title, although in sometimes confusing ways. For example, Europe Unite is not listed under “E” but under “P” for Postwar Speeches Part II, which is both confusing and incorrect since “Part II” is not actually part of the title. Barrett lists a primary edition for each title and then some “other editions.” Here again we find incomplete and inconsistent entries. For Free Trade lists the Churchilliana Co. 1977 reprint, but makes no mention of the Collected Works, whereas the Mr Brodrick’s Army entry includes the Collected Works but omits the Churchilliana Co. reprint. Elsewhere he confuses the publisher with printer, listing editions by “The Riverside Press,” which is in fact one of the printers of The Second World War.

    I can only surmise that the author did much of his research via library catalogues, as so many of the errors in the “by” sections seem to indicate that the books were never actually seen by Barrett. Fred Woods is listed as the editor for Step by Step, apparently as a result of his role as general editor for the Collected Works. There are also listings of non-existent editions, such as a 1932 Macmillan printing of The Eastern Front. The lack of consistency in assigning a book to a section can prove a real source of frustration. The Churchill War Papers volumes appear in section AE (Works By–Collections, Correspondence), but the rest of the Companion Volumes to the Official Biography are listed in section EB (Works about–Biographical Works, Post Mortem). Quite frankly, I find it difficult to recommend Barrett’s portion on “Books by Churchill” for any purpose.

    Barrett includes a paragraph or more describing the contents of each book. I find much of this to be heavy on academic wordiness. Why say “the present monograph” when “this book” will suffice? More frustrating is the reliance on opinions of reviewers without taking a stance when these inevitably conflict. Without judgment from the author, readers will conclude that the notoriously inaccurate Farmer Bibliography (DA1, 1958) contains “extensive details on different editions,” or that Harrity and Martin’s Man of the Century (EF17), noted for its wildly inaccurate captions, has “a beguiling photogenic aura.” And why is it necessary to suggest (“some critics feel”) that The River War, of all Churchill books, “attempts to surround realism with a fuzzy defense of Britain’s Sudanese imperialism”? It was a defense, all right–but hardly fuzzy.

    About 75% of the book is devoted to books about Churchill, and here the work shows some real value. The books are again categorized in such sections as statecraft, World Wars, literary, juvenile, and etc. One could argue endlessly about which category is best for a given title, but the choices are defensible, and Barrett has done a good job of including almost every book in English about Churchill. Within each subdivision, the books are arranged alphabetically by author. The descriptive paragraphs do give an indication of the subjects covered in the book, and often divulge the leanings of the authors. Other than the page count, there is no differentiation between a seriously researched book, and a hasty “pot boiler.” The categories are a genuine help to a reader seeking books in a particular area of interest. Barrett himself seems unwilling to take a stand and name a title to “best in class” or any similar comment.

    Fortunately, there are three indices, by author, title, and subject. I found it somewhat frustrating that the index entries referred the reader to a entry number (EC7) instead of a page number, but after some use, one gets better at using this system. The subject index, in conjunction with the categories used to list the book, should prove extremely useful to the researcher or reader seeking books on any particular aspect of Churchill. This what the book does best, and for such purposes I can certainly recommend it.