Description
First edition of At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends by Dwight D. Eisenhower, inscribed to his editor, Samuel S. Vaughan.
Octavo, 400pp. Black cloth, gilt-stamped title on spine. Stated “first edition” on copyright page. Publisher’s acetate dust jacket. Eisenhower’s presentation copies were not issued with a dust jacket. Inscribed by President Eisenhower on Gettysburg bookplate, dated June 16, 1967: “For: Sam Vaughan / with the warm regard of his friend / Dwight Eisenhower.” A unique association copy.
Samuel S. Vaughan (1928-2012) was an editor at Doubleday in 1961, who at the age of 32, was assigned to help former President Dwight Eisenhower write his memoirs. The two-volume White House memoirs were an arduous four year task for the former president. With the assistance of his son, John Eisenhower, and Samuel Vaughan, Eisenhower managed to produce an “official government document, dry and comprehensive, but too often devoid of Eisenhower’s candid observations.” (Simon, Eisenhower vs. Warren, page 262). At the behest of Vaughan, he included his observations of McCarthyism and Brown v. Board of Education, definitive cultural moments during his administration. Vaughan also worked on the more personal reminiscences of Eisenhower, titled “At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends.”
