Wasn't Winston Churchill the only one?
Short answer: No, he was not.
We mean, of course, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was one and the only of his kind Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Nobel Prize laureate in Literature. But please note there is a plot twist to the story.
About 5000 km away, in the United States of America, roughly at the same time, there lived another Winston Churchill. He was known as a writer – a very successful one – whose novels appeared among top-3 best-selling books in the USA. He never won a Nobel Prize or any other award, but once did receive a letter from Britain. And before coming to the content of that letter, let’s bring a bit more context to the stage.
June 1899.
Winston Churchill the Englishman is 24 years old.
He spent a few previous years travelling around the world to witness various military campaigns with his own eyes, on his own will. Based on what he had seen, Churchill has already written his first book. He then started working as a journalist and is now planning his future works of fiction and non-fiction.
Winston Churchill the American is 27 years old.
Five years ago he graduated from the Naval Academy and is now forming as a future novelist. He used to be a part of editorial boards of professional (military) and entertainment magazines but quit it all for the sake of writing novels. He has his first book published and is now working on the next historical novel which he feels must be a success.
Both were born in November. Both are interested in politics and both have painting as their hobbies.
Do you think the two could even know about each other in the era of no internet? Easy!
Winston Churchills’ big and small works have travelled across the ocean and reached each other’s countries by 1899. Their readers highly appreciated the writing and a new image of Winston Churchill was quickly generated: W.Churchill certainly knows a lot about history, even though he is young, he has witnessed war conflicts in Europe and India, and is pretty talented as a writer.
The two young men were in fact at the start of their careers, while one was just a little bit faster to anticipate the nearest future for them as personalities: a huge mess was coming.
From left to right: 1 - Winston Churchill (1900). Image by Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons (colourised)
2 - Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1899). Image in Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons (colourised)
Hence, the letter arrived to Winston Churchill’s American namesake. Full of compliments, written in a nice, almost playful manner, it mainly claimed one suggestion:
In future to avoid mistakes as far as possible, Mr. Winston Churchill has decided to sign all published articles, stories, or other works, 'Winston Spencer Churchill,' and not 'Winston Churchill' as formerly. He trusts that this arrangement will commend itself to Mr. Winston Churchill, and he ventures to suggest, with a view to preventing further confusion which may arise out of this extraordinary coincidence, that both Mr. Winston Churchill and Mr. Winston Churchill should insert a short note in their respective publications explaining to the public which are the works of Mr. Winston Churchill and which those of Mr. Winston Churchill.
It did not take long for Winston Churchill the American to recognise the author of the letter.
Surprised and grateful at the same time, he responded with a suggestion from his side to add an extra note “The American” to the titlepage of his books when there is a possibility. The first fiction book by Winston Spencer Churchill was already published, and the American colleague expressed his sincere interest in it already in his response. As a sign of gratitude, he also sent a few of his new books to his British pen friend.
As history has shown, the timing for the letter was perfect. Though at different stages of their lives, both Churchills got their own unique pieces of fame without wrong attributions or worse, authorship scandals. Soon after the correspondence, they even managed to meet in person – though once only – and who knows whether any of them would ever like to take his namesake’s place or change the agreement, had they known what each was going to get through in life.