When Mark Twain roasted Winston Churchill

Monday, Dec 1, 2014  - Salon - Thomas Maier

 Two master wits on the same stage

The young Brit was not expecting to be schooled by Twain -- but it was a rare moment when America did not love him

Mark Twain, Winston Churchill (Credit: Wikimedia/AP)

Nov. 30 marks the 140th birthday of the famous British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965), whose leadership during World War II made him unforgettable to Americans. This excerpt from “When Lions Roar: The Churchills and the Kennedys,” by Thomas Maier (Crown), helps explain why his memory endures.

Mark Twain, the longtime bard of the Mississippi, introduced Winston Churchill to a crowd of wealthy Americans packed inside New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel ballroom in December 1900—one of those rare meetings of historic figures that occurred so often in Churchill’s life. “I was thrilled by this famous companion of my youth,” Winston recalled of Twain, a literary inspiration. “He was now very old and snow-white, and combined with a noble air a most delightful style of conversation.”
More