Bidspirit auction | Issue of the American Magazine

Issue of the American Magazine TIME – Winston Churchill, the Great Fighter Against Adolf Hitler - “He has kindled a fire which will burn with a steady and consuming flame until the last vestiges of Nazi tyranny have been burned out of Europe, and until the Old World and the New can join hands to rebuild the temples of human freedom and human dignity upon foundations which will not soon or easily be overthrown.” – Issue of the American newsweekly TIME, dated September 30, 1940. The cover features a photo of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill under the headline: “BRITAIN’S CHURCHILL – ...Came the Equinox (World War), ” reflecting the expectation that he would be the leader to stand firm against the heavy German Luftwaffe bombing of London at the time. The cover photograph, showing Churchill in a suit, hat, and carrying a walking stick – an image characteristic of his persona as the leader standing firm against the heavy German Luftwaffe bombing of London at the time – was taken by the Associated Press. The inner pages feature an extensive article devoted entirely to Winston Churchill, the great leader. The issue presents an in-depth analysis of Churchill’s character, his style of leadership, his determination, and the manner in which he united the British people in the face of the Nazi threat: “Winston Churchill is tough. The first important thing he does when he wakes at 7:15 every morning is to light a cigar... His mind remembers whole libraries of facts... He wears out whole squads of secretaries. He humbles companies of men who hated him and now love him. He is no umbrella man, and he carries a walking stick not to support his 65-year-old body, but to prod, strike and point. He perseveres... He knows no fear... He loves life and liberty... Dorothy Thompson calls him ‘the great affirmer of life.’ This week Mrs. Thompson praised him as a man of action, ‘as a soldier, war correspondent and public servant in high places... Sometimes there is a feeling that the man has skipped a century, goes back to less easygoing and comfort-loving times, to older and more tried virtues... The cautious understatement characteristic of bourgeois decline is swept away in sublime eloquence. Addressing the people, “out of the heart of suffering itself we shall draw the means of inspiration and survival, ” he restores to the leadership of Britain the noble, in the precise sense of being a man and being noble.’ Hitler fears Churchill, and implicitly admitted as much when he made it clear in a speech at Saarbrücken that the inclusion of Winston Churchill in the Cabinet would be regarded as an act of hostility. Britain was so quiet then that the country’s leaders, who also feared this full-blooded man, seized upon Hitler’s threat as an excuse to silence Churchill. During the past two weeks he has spoken of Hitler, giving his people something real to fight for: ‘This wicked man, the repository and embodiment of many forms of soul-destroying hatred, this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame, has now resolved to try to break our famous island race by a process of indiscriminate slaughter and destruction.  What he has done is to kindle a fire in British hearts here and all over the world which will glow long after all traces of the conflagrations he has caused in London have been removed. He has kindled a fire which will burn with a steady and consuming flame until the last vestiges of Nazi tyranny have been burned out of Europe, and until the Old World and the New can join hands to rebuild the temples of human freedom and human dignity upon foundations which will not soon or easily be overthrown.” The article reports on the extensive damage caused by the heavy German Luftwaffe bombing raids, the manner in which the population coped with the attacks, and the shortage of air-raid shelters in the city. A prominent photograph shows British civilians sleeping on London Underground platforms at night in order to shelter from the bombing. The issue also contains ongoing reports throughout on developments at this stage of World War II. 80 pages. Complete issue. Subscription label on the front cover. Good condition.