Description
Presentation edition of My Hope For America from President Lyndon B. Johnson, for North Carolina congressman, Alton A. Lennon.
Small octavo, 127pp, [1]. Red leather, title stamped in gilt on spine. Stated “First Printing” on copyright page. Top edge gilt, silk endpapers. Transference of glue from silk pastedowns to endpapers, internally clean. Housed in the publisher’s matching red leatherette slipcase. (Martin / Goehlert 11364)
The majority of the 1967 Christmas presentation bookplates were signed with presidential autopen pattern #5, which went into use on February 2, 1967. (LBJ Library, Bridges, 240) This bookplate is signed with autopen. President Lyndon Johnson’s 1967 Christmas bookplate affixed to the half-title: “To Alton Lennon / With my best wishes / Christmas 1967 / Lyndon B. Johnson.”
My Hope For America was issued in two presentation bindings, this copy in red leather, and a deluxe edition in full pebbled blue calf. Both were signed interchangeably on presidential bookplates and in the president’s hand. This copy was inscribed to Alton A. Lennon (1906-1986) a Democratic politician from North Carolina who served briefly in the U.S. Senate and later in the U.S. House of Representatives. A lawyer by profession, he was appointed to the Senate in 1953, serving until 1954 but failing to win election to a full term. In 1957 he was elected to the House of Representatives, where he served until 1973, representing North Carolina’s 7th congressional district. While they were both Southern Democrats, Lennon was often at odds with President Johnson’s progressive agenda, voting against all of his Civil Rights legislation.
