Winston Churchill interest - An extremely rare copy of a pul...

Estimate

£400 - £500

Winston Churchill interest - An extremely rare copy of a pulped Newsweek cover featuring the death of Sir Winston Churchill which went to press when he was gravely ill following his final stroke (12th January) announcing his death with a dateline of 25th January 1965, accompanied by a letter from Pete Callaway, publisher of Newsweek, explaining that the production run was pulped and reprinted as Churchill didn't die until after the magazine was distributed: the same cover with a dateline of February 1 1965 ran after Churchill died on the 24th January 1965. The distributed edition with a dateline of 25 January 1965 featured the cover story 'The Challenge of Automation'.

More Information

Letter reads:
Dear Mr Moffatt:
You may think you have seen the attached Newsweek cover already -- but look again at the dateline.

It is the one that we sent to the engraver on Friday, January 15th, the morning that Churchill's grave illness was announced.

Despite the snowstorm that blanketed the entire East and Midwest that weekend, the cover was on our three presses in Dunellen, N.J., Dayton, Ohio, and Los Angeles within 24 hours -- and then, at Sunday press time, as the most indomitable spirit of our century grimly held onto life, we switched back to our formerly-scheduled cover.

Last week we again had two covers ready, one of the Inaugural and another of Winston Churchill, entirely reprinted with the new week's date. This time, at 3:35am Sunday, the February 1st Churchill cover which you did see went on the press.

But I am sending you this "cover that never ran" for two reasons. One, it may well become a rarity, as of course nearly all of the 250,000 that were printed with the January 25th date have already been destroyed. And two, I send it with a sense of pride that you, as someone who knows a bit about news and four-colour production schedules, would appreciate. My pride is in our editors' unflagging enterprise and responsibility in covering one of the most important news stories of our time.

You may wonder, for example, why no other newsweekly ran as a cover story the epic life and momentous death of the greatest Englishman since Shakespeare.

Sincerely,
Pete Callaway