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，带领英国取得反法西斯战争胜利的丘吉尔，因保守党在

大选中失败而黯然离开首相宝座。一下台，他就投入到了撰写二战回

忆录的工作中。

对丘吉尔来说，写传记并非头一遭。多年前，在一战期间担任过

政府要职的丘吉尔，曾历时 8 年写出一套五巨册的一战回忆录《世界

危机》。作为二战期间的政治巨头，他更是参与了英国几乎所有的重

大决策。撰写一部二战回忆录，是他从当上首相就开始考虑的事情。

因此二战期间，凡是经他手的重要文件，丘吉尔都嘱咐助手留下一份

抄件。平时，他还有把所见所闻写成文字的习惯，因而保留了大量的

便条、备忘录和手令。同时，他与美苏领导人罗斯福、杜鲁门和斯大

林之间的大量信函，也都以私人文件的形式被仔细地保存下来。所有

这些资料、文献，都构成了他撰写回忆录的珍贵素材。

写作一部规模宏大的《第二次世界大战回忆录》是非常艰巨的任

务，而此时的丘吉尔已 70 有余。因此，在朋友的建议下，丘吉尔将英

国军队的许多专家召到身边，组成了一个庞大的写作班子。由这些人

负责查阅资料、核对事实，并对他不熟悉的个别问题提供说明。丘吉

尔则按照自己的习惯，每天口述大约 9000 字，由两个能干的秘书班子

倒班辅助他写作。在撰写这部巨著之前，丘吉尔向出版商预支了稿费，

还与美国《生活》周刊商定复制其多幅绘画作品，筹得2.5 万美元现金

充当写作经费。为了争夺丘吉尔回忆录的首先连载权，英、美两国的

著名杂志竞相抬价，最后，美国的《生活》周刊用 200 万美元的价码

得到了刊载权。1948 年 2 月，《第二次世界大战回忆录》第一卷书稿

校样被空运到美国，6 月份正式出版。到了 10 月份，总印数已达到 21

万册。其后，很多国家也相继出版了本国语言的译本。《第二次世界

大战回忆录》为丘吉尔赢得了巨大的声誉，也让他赚了个钵满盆盈，

其稿费收入甚至超过以往他所有稿费之和，以至于《星期日泰晤士报》

声称，“２０世纪很少有人比丘吉尔拿的稿费还多”。而丘吉尔自己

则说：“我不是在写书，而是在积累财富。”由于《第二次世界大战

回忆录》的巨大成功，1953 年瑞典文学院授予他 nobel 文学奖，颁奖

词这样说道：“一项文学奖本来意在把荣誉给予作者，而这一次却相

反，是作者给了这个奖项以荣誉。”

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.