The Churchill Series - Dec. 14, 2005

In 1906 Churchill's two volume biography of his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was published in both Britain and America to mostly favorable reviews.

One American saw some merit in the biography but cared not at all for either Churchill. "I have been over Winston Churchill's life of his father," President Theodore Roosevelt wrote a friend. "I dislike the father and I dislike the son so I may be prejudiced" TR said both the biographer and the subject had "real farsightedness." But they both possessed "such levity, lack of sobriety, lack of permanent principle, and an inordinate thirst for that cheap form of admiration which is given to notoriety, as to make them poor public servants."

TR was closer to the mark with Randolph than with Winston.

A big part of appreciating Winston is recognizing how much he did enjoy what TR called the "cheap form of admiration;" and also how much he wanted political office and the esteem of people he respected; and yet was repeatedly willing to take unpopular stands on important issues.
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Martin Gilbert, Churchill and America. (p. 50)