INSCRIBED BY ROY COHN

COHN, Roy. McCarthy. (New York): New American Library, (1968). Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $600.

First edition of Roy Cohn's flattering biography of Joseph McCarthy, published during Cohn's own legal battles amidst charges of unethical conduct, inscribed by him, "Kind regards, Roy Cohn," with 16 pages of photographic illustrations.

One of 20th-century America's most notorious and controversial figures, Roy Cohn is forever linked to McCarthyism as Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel in his 1950s Senate investigations into Communism. "In 1953 Harry Truman described McCarthyism as 'the corruption of truth… the rise to power of the demagogue who lives on untruth'" (Atlantic). Cohn, who still lingers as a shadow over American politics, published this biography of McCarthy while facing his own series of legal battles in the 1960s. In it he foregrounds his own career and his role in both the Senate investigations and Army-McCarthy Hearings. "It mattered little to Cohn that he was called 'a legal executioner'" for his part in McCarthyism. "In fact Cohn seemed to cherish the celebrity that McCarthy maintained even long after his death, and did not mind sharing that limelight. 'His name is still a household word,' Cohn said. 'It will never go away.'" In June 1986 a New York State court ordered Cohn to be disbarred, describing his legal conduct as "'unethical,' 'unprofessional' and, in one case, 'particularly reprehensible.'" Cohn, who died that August, "once predicted that "his obituary would be headlined: 'Roy Cohn Dead; Was McCarthy Investigations Aide.' Indeed, such a conclusion by Cohn was almost inescapable" (New York Times). With "First Printing" on copyright page. Containing 16 pages of photographic illustrations.

A fine copy.