STANLEY DISCOVERS CHURCHILL
STANLEY, SIR HENRY MORTON. (1841-1904). Anglo-American journalist and explorer of Africa. Autograph Letter Signed, “Henry M. Stanley”, on his red-embossed 2, Richmond Terrace, Whitehall, S.W. stationery. Two full pages, octavo. London, June 17, 1901. Very fine condition. To “Major L.B. Pond”. Stanley writes:
“My dear Major, I am delighted to learn of your arrival, and hope we shall see you soon. As June is so awfully crowded with engagements Lady Stanley … up her list and found that tomorrow night was the only evening until the 24th that she was disengaged. She has written to Mrs. Pond to that effect I believe and I enclose her letter. Every Friday I leave London for Surrey, and if you can come down with me, I can give you the pot luck (and your pick of bedrooms) the servants generally give me when I pay a visit there without my wife. We can ramble about and talk undisturbed. Revolve all this in your mind and let me know if you can Tuesday evening. Only a few days ago I sent you Winston Churchill’s biography as drawn up by the ‘Daily Mail’. Until we meet, Sincerely yours, Henry M. Stanley”.
After military service with both sides in the American Civil War, Henry M. Stanley was recruited in 1867 by Colonel Samuel Forster Tappan (a one-time journalist) of the Indian Peace Commission to serve as a correspondent to cover the work of the Commission for several newspapers. Stanley was soon retained exclusively by the New York Herald He became one of the Herald’s overseas correspondents and, in 1869, was instructed by Bennett’s son to find the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone, who was known to be in Africa but had not been heard from for some time. Here, Stanley is very attentive to a young Winston Churchill who, after serving in South Africa during the second Boer War, was just elected to Parliament in the previous years’ general election. Instead of attending the opening of Parliament, Churchill then embarked on a speaking tour through the United Kingdom and the United States, meeting Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt while there. Upon his return to the United Kingdom, Churchill provoked controversy by opposing the government’s army estimates arguing against extravagant military expenditures.
$2200.00