From 1903 until 1905, Churchill was engaged in writing Lord Randolph Churchill, a two-volume biography of his father which was published in 1906 and received much critical acclaim.[1] However, filial devotion caused him to soften some of his father's less attractive aspects.[2]Theodore Roosevelt, who had known Lord Randolph, reviewed the book as "a clever, tactful and rather cheap and vulgar life of that clever, tactful and rather cheap and vulgar egotist".[3] Some historians suggest Churchill used the book in part to vindicate his own career and in particular to justify his crossing the floor to the Conservative Party in 1924.[4]