Coniston
Winston Churchill
Hardcover
(Indypublish.Com, Feb. 1, 2002)
Coniston is a 1906 best-selling novel by American writer Winston Churchill. 1906. American novelist, noted for his widely successful historical romances. Coniston begins: First I am to write a love-story of long ago, of a time some little while after General Jackson had got into the White House and had shown the world what a real democracy was. The Era of the first six Presidents had closed, and a new Era had begun. I am speaking of political Eras. Certain gentlemen, with a pious belief in democracy, but with a firmer determination to get on top, arose, -and got on top. So many of these gentlemen arose in the different states, and they were so clever, and they found so many chinks in the Constitution to crawl through and steal the people's chestnuts, that the Era may be called the Boss-Era. After the Boss came along certain Things without souls, but of many minds, and found more chinks in the Constitution: bigger chinks, for the Things were getting bigger, and they stole more chestnuts. But I am getting far ahead of my love-story-and of my book. Churchill's novel about New England politics in the nineteenth century features one of his greatest characters, the unscrupulous politician Jethro Bass, modeled on an actual New Hampshire political boss. It is the first in a series of social problem novels that includes Mr. Crewe's Career (1908), also about politics; A Modern Chronicle (1910), on divorce; The Inside of the Cup (1913), on the modern church; and The Dwelling Place of Light (1917), on industrialization. The plot of the historical novel concerns New Hampshire politics, where Churchill lived most of his adult life. Churchill was elected to the state legislature in 1903 and 1905, and unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor in 1906 at the same time Coniston was topping the best-selling lists. The political boss character in the book, Jethro Bass, was based on New Hampshire politician Ruel Durkee. A former U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, William E. Chandler, felt compelled to defend Durkee, publishing a pamphlet and writing letters to editors to claim that Durkee was a model citizen and not a model of corruption. wikipedia Contemporary writers identified the places in the novel with their real counterparts in New Hampshire. The small hamlet of Coniston itself is Croydon, New Hampshire (where Durkee lived), Brampton is Newport, Harwich is Claremont, Clovelly is Cornish, and "Coniston Water", the local river, is the Sugar River. The Pelican Hotel is the Eagle Hotel in Concord. Winston S. Churchill (1874-1965) has been called by historians "the man of the twentieth century." Prime Minister of Great Britain (1940-1945), Churchill won the Nobel prize for literature in 1953. Florence Scovel Shinn (1871-1940) was an artist, author, and New Thought spiritual teacher. She self-published her first book, The Game of Life and How to Play It, in 1925, and she published two more books during her lifetime. Her books have influenced millions and have never been out of print. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.