Details
[ROOSEVELT, Franklin D.] CHURCHILL, Winston S. (1874-1965). Typescript signed ("Winston S. Churchill"), a eulogy of Roosevelt, sent to W. Averell Harriman, London, [ca. 1955]. 2 pages, 4to (9½ x 7½ in.), neat hole punched in upper left corner, with original envelope, in fine condition.
CHURCHILL EULOGIZES FDR: "HIS LIFE AND WORK ARE AN INSPIRATION TO US ALL"
The Prime Minister sends a reminiscence of FDR to Averell Harriman at The Franklin D. Roosevelt Birthday Memorial Committee Headquarters in Rockefeller Plaza, New York. Harriman (1891-1986) was one of the President's closest advisors in foreign affairs, constantly at his side at the conferences at Cairo, Teheran and Yalta. Churchill's moving recollections capture the great historical and personal impact of their relationship: "It was not until the years of the late war that I really began to know President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Then, as I said in a broadcast speech in 1946, 'I conceived an admiration for President Roosevelt as a statesman, a man of affairs and a war leader. I felt the utmost confidence in his upright and inspiring character and outlook, and these ripened in my breast a personal regard and affection for him which will dwell with me as long as I live. His love of his own country, his respect for its constitution, his power of gauging the tides and currents of its free, mobile, public opinion was manifest. But added to these were the beatings of that generous heart which was always stirred to anger and to action by spectacles of aggresion and oppression by the strong against the weak.'"
As the birthday memorial was organized to help the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, the message further celebrates FDR's mental and physical exertion in the face of his debility. Churchill's quotation from his 1946 speech continues: "'His physical affliction lay heavy upon him. It was a marvel that he bore up against it through all the years of Party controversy in his own country and through the years of world storm... Not one in a generation would have succeeded in becoming the undisputed master of the vast and tragic scene...'" In closing he remarks, Churchill states: "His life and his work are an inspiration to us all."
Provenance: Anonymous owner (sold Swann Galleries, 24 October 1985, lot 64).
CHURCHILL EULOGIZES FDR: "HIS LIFE AND WORK ARE AN INSPIRATION TO US ALL"
The Prime Minister sends a reminiscence of FDR to Averell Harriman at The Franklin D. Roosevelt Birthday Memorial Committee Headquarters in Rockefeller Plaza, New York. Harriman (1891-1986) was one of the President's closest advisors in foreign affairs, constantly at his side at the conferences at Cairo, Teheran and Yalta. Churchill's moving recollections capture the great historical and personal impact of their relationship: "It was not until the years of the late war that I really began to know President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Then, as I said in a broadcast speech in 1946, 'I conceived an admiration for President Roosevelt as a statesman, a man of affairs and a war leader. I felt the utmost confidence in his upright and inspiring character and outlook, and these ripened in my breast a personal regard and affection for him which will dwell with me as long as I live. His love of his own country, his respect for its constitution, his power of gauging the tides and currents of its free, mobile, public opinion was manifest. But added to these were the beatings of that generous heart which was always stirred to anger and to action by spectacles of aggresion and oppression by the strong against the weak.'"
As the birthday memorial was organized to help the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, the message further celebrates FDR's mental and physical exertion in the face of his debility. Churchill's quotation from his 1946 speech continues: "'His physical affliction lay heavy upon him. It was a marvel that he bore up against it through all the years of Party controversy in his own country and through the years of world storm... Not one in a generation would have succeeded in becoming the undisputed master of the vast and tragic scene...'" In closing he remarks, Churchill states: "His life and his work are an inspiration to us all."
Provenance: Anonymous owner (sold Swann Galleries, 24 October 1985, lot 64).