September 11, 2015

Finest Hour 165, Autumn 2014

Page 32

By DAVID FREEMAN

I pursued our author from one engagement to another, but it seemed he could write new books faster than I could get them signed.

After finishing the narrative volumes of the official biography, Martin Gilbert published a book about that Olympian task, In Search of Churchill. In a minor key, my own life paralleled his search for Churchill, since for many years I have doggedly pursued Sir Martin Gilbert.

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I was brought to his work in the 1980s, around the same time I joined the International Churchill Society and learned about the annual conferences at which Sir Martin often spoke. Being in the U.S. Navy, the chances of attending seemed remote, but in 1991 the planets aligned and I was able to take a two-week leave that coincided with the U.S. conference in Richmond, Virginia. I flew in from Pearl Harbor (traveling the farthest, I think), bringing two Gilbert books to have signed. One was “Never Despair,” the last biographic volume, which I had finished at sea on a submarine, possibly a unique accomplishment.

I was excited finally to meet the author as he signed books at Richmond’s beautiful Jefferson Hotel, using a Lamy Safari fountain pen, his preferred instrument. He cheerfully signed my books; I couldn’t help noticing that others had brought stacks, yet he happily signed all.

What could I do? I had many more books back in California, but could only carry so many. Fortunately, when I returned home to spend a week with my family, Sir Martin was speaking at nearby Claremont-McKenna College, where his former research assistant Larry Arnn (now President of Hillsdale College) was on the faculty.

I grabbed as many books as I could and drove to Claremont, where Sir Martin spoke on Veterans Day, or as he put it, “the seventy-third anniversary of the day Armageddon ended.” Again he kindly signed all of my books, and even told me the story behind one of the cover photographs. Mine were nothing—I observed a man with a little red wagon loaded with volumes.

After I returned to Pearl Harbor, I wrote to thank him. Sir Martin responded with a letter in his own hand, saying he would gladly sign more copies, and even inviting me to visit if I was ever in London. Eighteen months later, out of the Navy and in school in London, I visited his home near Hampstead Heath. For an hour we strolled about the Heath talking Churchill—a great kindness to a young scholar that I shall never forget.

For the 1993 Churchill conference in Washington, I organized a strategic plan to have my remaining Gilbert volumes signed. Although limited by luggage space, I brought narrative volumes 3-7 and, since he was speaking at the National Holocaust Museum, I brought along one of his books on that sad subject.

After Washington, I found myself scouring issues of Finest Hour for news of Martin Gilbert’s upcoming activities. To paraphrase Harry Hopkins’ biblical quotation made to Churchill, whithersoever thou goest, I go. I pursued our author from one engagement to another, but it seemed he could write new books faster than I could get them signed.

Finally in 2001, the perfect opportunity arrived with the Churchill conference in San Diego, a two-hour drive from my home. Remembering the man with the little red wagon, I filled two suitcases with every remaining unsigned volume and stuffed them into my car.

The conference began on Guy Fawkes Day—perfect for a plot. At the signing session I offered him a few volumes, asking if I could buy him a drink later while he signed a few more. He easily agreed. So it was that, on a balmy afternoon on the verandah of the Hotel Del Coronado, overlooking the Pacific, I handed him one copy after another to be duly inscribed. There must have been several dozen, including the massive companion volumes to the Official Biography. Finally, my collection was complete. But not for long!

Sir Martin was by no means finished writing books, and in the years that followed I scrambled to secure signed copies of the new works.  I have not accumulated the Complete Signed Works of Sir Martin Gilbert, but am close. I was grateful in the process to meet and know this wonderful man and great historian.

Mr. Freeman is a professor of History at California State University Fullerton, and becomes editor of Finest Hour effective with the next issue.