Landmark Books in All Fields
ItemID: #124614
Cost: $25,000.00

Inaugural Addresses

Franklin D. Roosevelt

"THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF": VERY RARE PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY OF FDR'S INAUGURAL ADDRESSES, INSCRIBED AT CHRISTMAS 1943 BY PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT TO HIS WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY JONATHAN DANIELS, ONE OF ONLY 100 COPIES

ROOSEVELT, Franklin D. Inaugural Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Washington, D.C.: (U.S. Government Printing Office),1943. Slim quarto, original half ivory vellum, black morocco spine label, marbled boards, top edge gilt, uncut; pp. 24, original slipcase. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $25,000.

Limited edition, number 69 of only 100 copies, an exceedingly rare presentation/association copy, warmly inscribed by FDR to his trusted White House Press Secretary, "For Jonathan Daniels with the affectionate regards of President Roosevelt, Christmas 1943." This is one of FDR's famed Christmas Books, privately printed at his own expense, a flawless copy in the original slipcase.

This rare presentation/association copy of Roosevelt's Inaugural Addresses features FDR's first three Inaugural Addresses. The volume begins with that of March 4, 1933, when Roosevelt spoke to a desperate nation in those now-immortal words—"the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." In a firm and reassuring voice, "Roosevelt spoke for 15 minutes—brief as inaugural addresses go, but the words were memorable, exceeding even Lincoln's magnificent second inaugural in their immediate impact… The effect of the speech was electrifying" (Smith, FDR, 302-3). As Russell Baker has noted, although "few expected very much of Franklin Roosevelt on Inauguration Day in 1933…What so many observers failed to grasp before 1933 was that Roosevelt… was a great politician, and to be a great politician is no small thing" (New York Review of Books).

Inaugural Addresses further contains Roosevelt's Second Inaugural Address of 1937, when he became the first president to be inaugurated into office in January, and his Third Inaugural Address of 1941, when he spoke of even greater "perils never before encountered," and told the nation: "For this, we muster the spirit of America… We do not retreat." Limited edition of only 100 copies: one in a tradition of privately printed Christmas Books that Roosevelt published "at his own expense… the FDR Christmas Books are prime collector's items… nearly all of them were distributed exclusively to close friends of the family… difficult to obtain today" (Halter 193-4). Without original acetate. Roosevelt inscribed this rare copy to Jonathan Daniels, who was FDR's White House Press Secretary during FDR's last term and continued as Truman's Press Secretary in the early months of his presidency. Daniels then served as Consultant to Truman in the 1948 presidential campaign and authored a biography of Truman titled, The Man of Independence (1950).

In fine condition.

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