• 40 • “THE BOOK COULD NOT HAVE BEEN BETTER AND YOU HAVE CERTAINLY DONE A WONDERFUL JOB—AND I KNOW DAD WAS PLEASED”: FASCINATING TYPED SIGNED LETTER FROM JOHN F. KENNEDY—WITH A PRESENTATION COPY OF AS WE REMEMBER JOE, INSCRIBED BY JFK TO THE SAME RECIPIENT, AND CORRESPONDENCE 40KENNEDY, John F. Typed letter signed. WITH: As We Remember Joe. San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1945. Single leaf of letterhead, typed on recto and verso for two pages. Book: octavo, original maroon cloth, original glassine, original mailing box. Housed together with supporting material in two custom chemises and clamshell boxes. $27,500 Exceptional typed letter by John F. Kennedy to the secretary of the publisher of the moving tribute to Joe Kennedy Jr., requesting that it be sent to several people in England, boldly signed. Together with a presentation copy of the book, inscribed by JFK: “For Mr. Sherrill, with the greatest appreciation for all of his thoughtfulness, from Jack Kennedy, May 1945.” Together with the publisher’s typed mailing list and an archive of correspondence and other related materials. The undated letter, to Mr. Edgar Sherrill, the secretary at the University Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, reads in part: “Dear Mr. Sherrill: “The book could not have been better and you have certainly done a wonderful job—and I know Dad was pleased. There are several people in Enlgand [sic] that I promised to send it to.” He then provides the names and addresses of six additional recipients in England—among them Lady Sykes and the Duchess of Devonshire—and an additional two in the United States, concluding: “Thanks a lot—I should be up there within a couple of weeks. Sincerely, [signed] Jack Kennedy.” John F. Kennedy edited As We Remember Joe, the collection of 20 essays memorializing his eldest brother, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., who won the Naval Cross and was killed in action in 1944. The materials in the accompanying archive includes: typed letters from Joseph P. Kennedy or his secretary Marilyn McElwee to Sherrill, enclosing a list of mailing addresses, requesting six copies of the book, or listing a dozen additional mailing addresses; four typed copies of the mailing list; a typed letter from JFK’s secretary Janet Des Rosiers to the press, requesting an inventory of the remaining copies; a typed letter from Kennedy family attorney William Peyton Marin to the press requesting delivery of the printing plates for As We Remember Joe. Book first issue, with winged device on the title page printed in red, one of 390 copies of the first issue (the second issue was of 250 copies). Supporting archive with expected signs of handling. Book fine, short closed tear and light edgewear to fragile original glassine, often not present; light wear to box, rarely present. Typed letter signed by JFK with faint fold lines, but fine, signature bold.
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