Hillsdale College to Complete Official Biography of Sir Winston Churchill this Fall
Hillsdale, Mich.— Hillsdale College announces that its Churchill Project will publish the final volume of The Churchill Documents this fall. The publication of the 23rd volume will complete the official biography of Sir Winston Churchill, begun in 1962 by Churchill’s son, Randolph, and continued by Martin Gilbert from 1968 to 2012.
“In the official biography of Winston Churchill,” writes Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn in his preface to the final document volume, “we have a long and careful narrative written by two people who believed not only in following the evidence, but also in walking side by side with it. And then we have the documents from which they wrote, and more documents still, reproduced and available, most of them in full. They are indexed, annotated, and published. The reader may then use the biography either as the great story it is, or as a tool to do historical research. The narrative volumes are a guide to the document volumes, the document volumes evidence for the narrative.”
The official biography of Sir Winston Churchill is the largest biography of any single historical figure ever published. It is comprised of eight narrative volumes, written by Randolph Churchill and Martin Gilbert, and 23 document volumes, edited since 2012 by Larry P. Arnn. The total page count of the entire 31-volume series comes in at 42,300 pages. The word count is staggering at 15.1 million words. This reflects the prolific career and carefully preserved record of its subject.
Volume 22 of The Churchill Documents, titled Leader of the Opposition, August 1945 to October 1951, will be published in July 2019. It chronicles Churchill’s years following World War II, when he traveled and campaigned extensively in an effort to unify post-war Europe and strengthen his own, war-torn nation. The volume reproduces the text of more than 250 speeches by Churchill and 1,300 pieces of correspondence. Volume 23, the final volume, Never Flinch, Never Weary, November 1951 to February 1965, is scheduled for publication this fall.
In celebration of the completion of this historic and unparalleled biography, Hillsdale College hosted a dinner in London on June 14. In attendance were many members of the Churchill family, several members of the House of Lords, and many dignitaries who have contributed to the great work. Larry Arnn; Esther Gilbert, Martin Gilbert’s widow; Lord Michael Dobbs; and Randolph Churchill, Winston’s great-grandson, gave remarks. Randolph stated during his: “The biography is used by those who seek the truth, and that sits very tightly with the Hillsdale legacy and reputation for upholding the Constitution.”