Description
Address of the President on the Occasion of His Visit to South America, a signed limited edition.
Quarto, [5], 17-23, [3], 32-33, [79 blank]. Black pebbled morocco, raised bands on spine, presidential seal in gilt over blue leather on front board. Inner durables with gilt decoration and silk paste down. Top edge gilt, uncut edges. Silk endpapers. Silk sewn-in bookmark. Housed in two piece leather and marbled slipcase, rubbed at edges and wear to laid on marbled paper, short split to bottom edge. Lacking the silk paste down on rear endpaper.
Signed on laid-in limitation leaf by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and presented to Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, President of the Dominican Republic.
Limitation page states: “In commemoration of the visit of the President of the United States to the Pan American Peace Conference in South America November and December, Nineteen Hundred and Thirty-six, seventy-five copies of his address have been designed and printed by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington District of Columbia, April, Nineteen Hundred and Thirty-seven.”
The copy for President Rafael Molina was delivered to him on October 22, 1937, with a note confirming delivery to Secretary Cordell Hull. President Rafael Trujillo was the dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 – 1961. During his time as president he was responsible for thousands of political deaths and assassinations. It was later learned that that CIA played a part in the assassination of Trujillo in 1961.
Provenance: Book was acquired from a “senior executive” at the USGPO by New York bookseller, Warren Berry. Records from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library indicate that “In all, seventy-five copies were printed, fifty copies in full pigskin with double box type slipcase and twenty-five copies half bound with marbled sides and conventional single slip cases.” The library documents also note that “names and titles of the dignitaries who are to receive the book also require careful research,” indicating that mistakes were made and certain copies were held back. Multiple requests were made of Roosevelt to produce more copies, but all complete copies were distributed.
