ADDRESS OF FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES FROM JULY 19, 1940 TO JANUARY 20, 1941 - INSCRIBED TO HIS YOUNGEST SON, JOHN
[Washington, DC]: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1941. First Edition. The seventh of FDR's Christmas Books, printed at his own expense as a special White House holiday gift each year between 1935-1944. This volume includes ten speeches Roosevelt made over a historic six month period of his presidency, commencing with the July 19, 1940 White House radio address in which FDR announced his intention to seek an unprecedented third term, and concluding with his third inaugural oration in January 1941; the remaining eight texts are all campaign speeches. By family consensus John Aspinwall Roosevelt (1916-1981) was the son least like his father, which reflected itself politically as well as in many other aspects. His older brother, James, wrote that John "had the smoothest, least exciting life of all of us," was "the most thoughtful and businesslike," and that, as the youngest, "he was also the least close to father." This last, in some respects, could have been the result of John being only five years old when his father contracted polio. In 1937, he was involved in a drunken brawl and an attack on the mayor in Cannes that made headlines across the world, but during World War II he served in the United States Navy, eventually winning the Bronze Star and promotion to lieutenant commander for his actions on the aircraft carrier USS Wasp, while his ship was being fired upon by Japanese gunners. See Halter, p.193. Item #6045
One of 75 numbered copies specially bound and initialed by Roosevelt on the colophon, this being copy no.54. Octavo (26cm); cockerell paper-covered boards and white parchment spine, with printed title label mounted to upper backstrip; top edge gilt; [ii],[4],5-114,[4]pp. Presentation copy, inscribed to his youngest son John and his wife, the former Anne Lindsay Clark: "For Johnny & Anne / with a Happy Christmas / & love from Franklin D. Roosevelt." Gentle sunning to spine, faint finger-soil to right margin of p.3-4, else Near Fine, lacking the original cardboard slipcase, but housed in a bespoke half morocco slipcase and chemise.
Price: $15,000.00