''Coniston'' is a 1906 best-selling novel by American writer

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

Background

The plot of the historical novel concerns

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

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.(July 23, 1906)
"CONISTON:; A New England Story of a Long Period from the Jacksonian Epoch to Grant's Day Is Winston Churchill's New Book
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''(August 10, 1906)
Colonel Churchill of Cornish
''McCook Tribune''(September 19, 1906)
Churchill Is Beaten In New Hampshire
''

'' (reporting that establishment candidate Charles M. Floyd had beaten Churchill for the GOP nomination) The political boss character in the book, Jethro Bass, was based on New Hampshire politician Ruel Durkee.(September 30, 1906)
A Novelist In Politics
''

''Zanes, John (July 14, 1975)
Political Prep
''

The Telegraph (Nashua) ''The Telegraph'', for most of its existence known as the ''Nashua Telegraph'', is a daily newspaper in Nashua, New Hampshire. It was founded as the ''Nashua Daily Telegraph'' in 1869, although a weekly version dates back to 1832. Through the 20 ...

'' A former U.S. Senator from New Hampshire,

William E. Chandler William Eaton Chandler (December 28, 1835November 30, 1917), also known as Bill Chandler, was a lawyer who served as United States Secretary of the Navy and as a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire. In the 1880s, he was a member of the Republican "H ...

, 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.Schneider, Robert W
Novelist to a Generation: The Life and Thought of Winston Churchill
p. 105 (1976) 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 Croydon is a town in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 801 at the 2020 census. History Incorporated in 1763, the town takes its name from Croydon, a suburb of London, England. Croydon was home to Ruel Durkee, a ...

(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 Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

.Henderson, Brooks
Winston Churchill's Country
''

The Bookman (New York) ''The Bookman'' was a literary journal established in 1895 by Dodd, Mead and Company. It drew its name from the phrase, "I am a book-man," by James Russell Lowell. The phrase, without the hyphen, regularly appeared on the cover and title page o ...

'', August 1915, pp. 607, 617

Reception

It was the best-selling novel in the United States in 1906, and also included illustrations by

Florence Scovel Shinn Florence Scovel Shinn (September 24, 1871 in Camden, New Jersey – October 17, 1940) was an American artist and book illustrator who became a New Thought spiritual teacher and metaphysical writer in her middle years.Gatlin, Linda; Edwards, Rita"P ...

.(October 18, 1940)
Mrs. Florence Shinn, Writer and Lecturer
''

'' ("Mrs. Shinn's career until the World War was devoted to illustrating many of the popular works of fiction of the time. She did the illustrations for .... "Coniston" and many others.")

Legacy

The local market in Croydon is still called the "Coniston General Store" after the book, and a nearby lake was renamed "Lake Coniston" in 1943. The

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

's Camp Coniston took its name after the lake in 1969.The Coniston Chronicle - Commemorative Edition (1911-2011)
(2011) (Camp Coniston YMCA publication)

References

External links

''Coniston'' at Project GutenbergWinston Churchill's "Coniston"
2005 radio show on

New Hampshire Public Radio New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) is the National Public Radio member network serving the state of New Hampshire. NHPR is based in Concord and operates eight transmitters and six translators covering nearly the whole state, as well as portions of ...

on the novel {{Winston Churchill (novelist) 1906 American novels American historical novels Novels set in New Hampshire Novels by Winston Churchill (novelist)