Description
Signed first edition of the Memoirs of Harry S. Truman, inscribed to Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer James MacGregor Burns.
Octavo, [two volumes], xi, 596pp; xi, 594pp. Black cloth, titles in silver on spines, signature of the author in gilt on front covers. Stated “first edition” in both volumes. Top edge dyed green. Light soiling to cloth of Volume I, small label removed from spine. Volume II fine. In publisher’s first state dust jackets, $5.00 on front flap, light toning to both spines, touch of shelf wear, near fine examples. (Burns 0016) Inscribed by President Harry S. Truman in Volume I, Year of Decisions: “To James M. Burns, with kindest regards from Harry S. Truman. 12/14/56.”
The recipient of this copy was the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian, James MacGregor Burns. His most notable work, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, won him the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Burns was an informal adviser to numerous presidents, from Kennedy to Clinton. His work in the field of leadership theory is often used to define a president as a transactional leader or a transformational one. Burns was a professor at Williams College for most of his career and died in 2014 at the age of 95.
