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(lǐng)英國(guó)取得反法西斯戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)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(tái)，他就投入到了撰寫二戰(zhàn)回
憶錄的工作中。
對(duì)丘吉爾來說，寫傳記并非頭一遭。多年前，在一戰(zhàn)期間擔(dān)任過
政府要職的丘吉爾，曾歷時(shí) 8 年寫出一套五巨冊(cè)的一戰(zhàn)回憶錄《世界
危機(jī)》。作為二戰(zhàn)期間的政治巨頭，他更是參與了英國(guó)幾乎所有的重
大決策。撰寫一部二戰(zhàn)回憶錄，是他從當(dāng)上首相就開始考慮的事情。
因此二戰(zhàn)期間，凡是經(jīng)他手的重要文件，丘吉爾都囑咐助手留下一份
抄件。平時(shí)，他還有把所見所聞寫成文字的習(xí)慣，因而保留了大量的
便條、備忘錄和手令。同時(shí)，他與美蘇領(lǐng)導(dǎo)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(xì)地保存下來。所有
這些資料、文獻(xiàn)，都構(gòu)成了他撰寫回憶錄的珍貴素材。
寫作一部規(guī)模宏大的《第二次世界大戰(zhàn)回憶錄》是非常艱巨的任
務(wù)，而此時(shí)的丘吉爾已 70 有余。因此，在朋友的建議下，丘吉爾將英
國(guó)軍隊(duì)的許多專家召到身邊，組成了一個(gè)龐大的寫作班子。由這些人
負(fù)責(zé)查閱資料、核對(duì)事實(shí)，并對(duì)他不熟悉的個(gè)別問題提供說明。丘吉
爾則按照自己的習(xí)慣，每天口述大約 9000 字，由兩個(gè)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(yù)支了稿費(fèi)，
還與美國(guó)《生活》周刊商定復(fù)制其多幅繪畫作品，籌得2.5 萬美元現(xiàn)金
充當(dāng)寫作經(jīng)費(fèi)。為了爭(zhēng)奪丘吉爾回憶錄的首先連載權(quán)，英、美兩國(guó)的
著名雜志競(jìng)相抬價(jià)，最后，美國(guó)的《生活》周刊用 200 萬美元的價(jià)碼
得到了刊載權(quán)。1948 年 2 月，《第二次世界大戰(zhàn)回憶錄》第一卷書稿
校樣被空運(yùn)到美國(guó)，6 月份正式出版。到了 10 月份，總印數(shù)已達(dá)到 21
萬冊(cè)。其后，很多國(guó)家也相繼出版了本國(guó)語言的譯本。《第二次世界
大戰(zhàn)回憶錄》為丘吉爾贏得了巨大的聲譽(yù)，也讓他賺了個(gè)缽滿盆盈，
其稿費(fèi)收入甚至超過以往他所有稿費(fèi)之和，以至于《星期日泰晤士報(bào)》
聲稱，“２０世紀(jì)很少有人比丘吉爾拿的稿費(fèi)還多”。而丘吉爾自己
則說：“我不是在寫書，而是在積累財(cái)富。”由于《第二次世界大戰(zhàn)
回憶錄》的巨大成功，1953 年瑞典文學(xué)院授予他 nobel 文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)，頒獎(jiǎng)
詞這樣說道：“一項(xiàng)文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)本來意在把榮譽(yù)給予作者，而這一次卻相
反，是作者給了這個(gè)獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)以榮譽(yù)。”
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.
