Nancy B King

I just finished reading Churchill by Paul Johnson. On page 87 I came across this—

On December 13, 1931, crossing Fifth Avenue in the dark, he looked the wrong way, as in England, and a fast car, coming from the opposite direction, knocked him down. He was badly damaged on the head, thigh, and ribs, and in terrible pain. But he remained conscious and when a policeman asked what had happened insisted it was entirely his own fault. He was in fact lucky to be alive.

—-which brought to mind a family story.

My grandfather loved to read and often sent his copy of a favorite book to the author to be autographed. This he did with Churchill’s The Unknown War—one of the books from Churchill’s Five volume history of the First World War. Grandfather didn’t hear and didn’t hear from Churchill but didn’t think too much about it because after all Churchill was a busy man. Then much later, Grandfather received his book autographed by Churchill with a note of apology and explanation that he had been carrying the book when he has hit crossing a street in New York City.

The Unknown War

The Unknown War was a part of my every day life through junior high and high school for a very practical, non literary reason. I can remember Mother cautioning me to carefully clean around it. She recounted its story several times. No, I have never read it, but am intrigued now after having just read Churchill and because my father fought in World War I.