William HILLMAN - Winston CHURCHILL, Violet Pearman Working File, 1931-1935

Sir Winston Spencer CHURCHILL, Mrs Violet PEARMAN (W.S.C.'s Secretary) / William HILLMAN

A file assembled by William Hillman containing correspondence and texts for articles by Winston S. Churchill. Churchill contracted with Hearst Newspapers to write for the “March of Events” series that Hearst ran in 1931.

The present file is ordered chronologically, starting, at the back, with:

seven pages which include a copy of the contract between the Hearst Corporation and Churchill, together with a cover letter by Than V. Ranck (of the Hearst Corporation) to Robert Welles Ritchie (also of Hearst Corporation) putting W.S.C's contribution in context:

“As you know, we have contracted with Winston Churchill for a series of articles, one every four weeks, for use in the March of Events section during 1931. The articles are each to be approximately 2,000 words in length. They are to alternate with similar articles by former Chancellor Mueller of Germany, Paul Painleve of France and Premier Mussolini of Italy. The articles are to be on topics of world wide news interest, with immediate interest to England and the United States, and are to be cabled here at the most economical possible rate. To obtain the best possible results, the subject upon which Mr. Churchill proposes to write, suggested either by him or by you, should be submitted to this office as early in the week as possible before its preparation so that if we do not approve of the subject can ask him to suggest another subject or suggest one ourselves when we feel that the occasion requires this office will take the initiative in suggesting the subject.”

together with: the schedule listing the planned publication dates, with the related deadlines for Churchill to submit his articles.

Other contents include:

- An 8-page typed copy of an article sent via Western Union, presumably the first draft by Churchill, dated July 20 [1931] (typed using a Hearst Office typewriter, with an ingenious way of ensuring the authenticity of the document: the document has an ever-present capital 'E' instead of the regular lowercase 'e'). 

- a 6-page transcription of a phone call to WSC, a reminder to submit his articles on time, dated Aug. 7 [1931]

- a 6-page (Hearst Offfice Typed) copy of article sent via Western Union, on Russia, Bolshevism and relations with the West , dated August 15 [1931].

- a 1-page copy of Hillman's letter to WSC, congratulating him for his victory, dated Oct. 28, 1931

- 1-page “Statement of Mr. Churchill” , (Hearst Offfice Typed)

- 1-page (Hearst Offfice Typed) congratulating WSC on his Birthday and victory, dated 30th November 1932.

- 5-pages (Hearst Offfice Typed) copy of article sent via Western Union, on "How fares the United States under the bold schemes of President Roosevelt?" (see lot #14) dated April 22 1935

- 1-page copy of letter from Hillman to WSC, mentioning sending payment, dated 13th May 1935

- Copy of letter from Hillman to WSC, seemingly settling a dispute, dated March 13 1936.

- 3 clerical letters (3 pages in total), dated 1937 and 1938.

Provenance: William Hillman (1895-1962); with a Litchfield auction house (c.1997-2005); purchased by the present owner.

William Hillman was born in New York City in 1895. His career as a journalist started in 1915, and from 1926 onwards he worked as a foreign correspondent for Universal Service and Hearst Newspapers in Paris, Berlin and London. From 1934 to 1939 he was Chief of Staff, Foreign Correspondents, for Hearst Newspapers, also reporting directly to Mr. Hearst.

He subsequently did a lot of work for President Truman, and the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum in Independence, MO, have a large holding of his papers (but largely concerned with this latter part of his career from 1951 until his death in 1962 , with a few items going back as far as 1934). See https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/personal-papers/william-hillman-papers

Yale also have some of Hillman’s papers, part of the Than Vanneman Ranck papers (see https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/12/resources/3673 ). These are probably more relevant as they concern the workings of the Hearst organization.

Hillman stored his files and papers in a barn that was ‘local’ to his New Milford, Ct. property. In effect these ‘disappeared’ when he died and only ‘re-surfaced’ in the 1990s. The dispute over their ownership was not sorted out until 2005, and they were subsequently put up for auction in Litchfield, Ct. The present lot is from this ‘New Milford group’.