Of CHURCHILL STYLE, A CONNECTICUT YANKEE and DIXIE
by Barry Singer
Among the many things about America that Winston Churchill fancied, two particular fascinations stood out for him: Mark Twain and The Civil War.
Churchill and Twain actually met on December 12, 1900 in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, where the 26-year-old Churchill was the hot ticket guest speaker; a Boer War hero on his first ever lecture tour of the U.S.
Twain, then-age 65, introduced him:
“Mr. Churchill and I do not agree on the righteousness of the South African war, but that is of no consequence,” Twain began that night. “… Mr. Churchill will tell you about the war in South Africa, and he is competent – he fought and wrote through it himself. And he made a record there which would be a proud one for a man twice his age. By his father he is English, by his mother he is American – to my mind the blend which makes the perfect man. We are now on the friendliest terms with England… and I am glad. We have always been kin: kin in blood, kin in religion, kin in representative government, kin in ideals, kin in just and lofty purposes; and now we are kin in sin, the harmony is complete, the blend is perfect, like Mr. Churchill himself, whom I now have the honor to present to you.”
“I was thrilled by this famous companion of my youth,” Churchill recalled in his memoir My Early Life, published in 1930. “He was now very old and snow-white, and combined with a noble air a most delightful style of conversation. Of course we argued about the [Boer] war… I think however I did not displease him; for he was good enough at my request to sign every one of thirty volumes of his works for my benefit; and in the first volume he inscribed the following maxim intended, I daresay, to convey a gentle admonition: ‘To do good is noble; to teach others to do good is nobler, and no trouble.‘”
Years later, on January 31, 1932, Churchill spoke in Hartford, Connecticut under the auspices of the Mark Twain Foundation at Bushnell Memorial Hall before a sold-out audience of over 2,000. This, to my knowledge, was his second visit to Connecticut (and his last). His first time in the state had, in fact, come during that maiden U.S. tour which Twain had helped launch. On that occasion, too, Churchill spoke at Bushnell Hall in Hartford.
I bring all of this up simply because I had the pleasure myself of speaking in Connecticut this past Sunday (the 23rd of March). My host was The Churchill Society of Connecticut, led by its President, Roger Deakin (my chaperone was the estimable Jim Lykos). 
The location for the talk was not Bushnell Hall in Hartford but Essex Meadows in Essex, Connecticut. I sure wish Twain could have been there.
Two weeks earlier (on Thursday, March 6, to be exact), I ventured south to Birmingham, Alabama, as guest speaker for a black-tie Churchill dinner hosted by a charming group of Southern gentlemen gathered together by two resident customers of mine from Chartwell Booksellers, Mike Murchison and Ed Hardin. The location this time was Ed Hardin’s delectable Veranda on Highland restaurant in Birmingham. 
The menu for the evening replicated the menu Churchill had requested for his final attending of The Other Club on December 10, 1964 at the Savoy Hotel. The champagne served was, of course, Pol Roger.
So far as I can tell, Winston Churchill never made it to Alabama. The closest I can place him is Atlanta, where he spoke on February 23, 1932 as part of the same grueling lecture tour that had earlier brought him to Hartford. He landed in Atlanta after visiting several Civil War battlefield sites, including Gettysburg. Churchill’s fascination with the American Civil War would later lead him to write a deeply knowledgeable assessment of the conflict in his A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.
Just prior to dinner in Birmingham, I was the beneficiary of a splendid book signing event at The Alabama Booksmith – one of the swellest independent bookshops I have had the pleasure to visit. Captained by its intrepid owner, Jake Reiss, The Alabama Booksmith sells nothing but signed books. Imagine! For my visit, Jake sold over 250 copies of Churchill Style. I signed them all, with awe and appreciation.
