Memoirs of the Second World War (six volume)

by Winston S. Churchill

1. The Gathering Storm

2. Their Finest Hour

3. The Grand Alliance

4. The Hinge of Fate

5. Closing the Ring

6. Triumph and Tragedy

1945 年，帶領英國取得反法西斯戰爭勝利的丘吉爾，因保守黨在

大選中失敗而黯然離開首相寶座。一下臺，他就投入到了撰寫二戰回

憶錄的工作中。

對丘吉爾來說，寫傳記并非頭一遭。多年前，在一戰期間擔任過

政府要職的丘吉爾，曾歷時 8 年寫出一套五巨冊的一戰回憶錄《世界

危機》。作為二戰期間的政治巨頭，他更是參與了英國幾乎所有的重

大決策。撰寫一部二戰回憶錄，是他從當上首相就開始考慮的事情。

因此二戰期間，凡是經他手的重要文件，丘吉爾都囑咐助手留下一份

抄件。平時，他還有把所見所聞寫成文字的習慣，因而保留了大量的

便條、備忘錄和手令。同時，他與美蘇領導人羅斯福、杜魯門和斯大

林之間的大量信函，也都以私人文件的形式被仔細地保存下來。所有

這些資料、文獻，都構成了他撰寫回憶錄的珍貴素材。

寫作一部規模宏大的《第二次世界大戰回憶錄》是非常艱巨的任

務，而此時的丘吉爾已 70 有余。因此，在朋友的建議下，丘吉爾將英

國軍隊的許多專家召到身邊，組成了一個龐大的寫作班子。由這些人

負責查閱資料、核對事實，并對他不熟悉的個別問題提供說明。丘吉

爾則按照自己的習慣，每天口述大約 9000 字，由兩個能干的秘書班子

倒班輔助他寫作。在撰寫這部巨著之前，丘吉爾向出版商預支了稿費，

還與美國《生活》周刊商定復制其多幅繪畫作品，籌得2.5 萬美元現金

充當寫作經費。為了爭奪丘吉爾回憶錄的首先連載權，英、美兩國的

著名雜志競相抬價，最后，美國的《生活》周刊用 200 萬美元的價碼

得到了刊載權。1948 年 2 月，《第二次世界大戰回憶錄》第一卷書稿

校樣被空運到美國，6 月份正式出版。到了 10 月份，總印數已達到 21

萬冊。其后，很多國家也相繼出版了本國語言的譯本�！兜诙�次世界

大戰回憶錄》為丘吉爾贏得了巨大的聲譽，也讓他賺了個缽滿盆盈，

其稿費收入甚至超過以往他所有稿費之和，以至于《星期日泰晤士報》

聲稱，“２０世紀很少有人比丘吉爾拿的稿費還多”。而丘吉爾自己

則說：“我不是在寫書，而是在積累財富�！庇捎凇兜诙�次世界大戰

回憶錄》的巨大成功，1953 年瑞典文學院授予他 nobel 文學獎，頒獎

詞這樣說道：“一項文學獎本來意在把榮譽給予作者，而這一次卻相

反，是作者給了這個獎項以榮譽�！�

Churchill's reputation as a writer rests on his three massive

multi-volume works of narrative history. These are his histories of

the First World War — The World Crisis (six volumes, 1923 –31),

and of The Second World War (six volumes, 1948–53), and his A

History of the English-Speaking Peoples (four volumes, 1956–58,

much of which had been written as journalism in the 1930s).

These are among the longest works of history ever published

(The Second World War runs to more than two million words),

and earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Churchill's histories of the two world wars are, of course, far

from being conventional historical works, since the author was a

central participant in both stories and took full advantage of that

fact in writing his books. Both are in a sense therefore memoirs

as well as histories, but Churchill was careful to broaden their

scope to include events in which he played no part

— the war

between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, for example.

Inevitably, however, Churchill placed Britain, and therefore

himself, at the centre of his narrative. Arthur Balfour described

The World Crisis as "Winston's brilliant autobiography, disguised

as a history of the universe." In any case he had far fewer

documentary sources for matters not involving Britain.