Description
First edition of Portrait of the Assassin, inscribed by Gerald R. Ford to Academy Award winning director, Frank Capra.
Octavo, 508pp. Red cloth, gilt title on spine. Stated “first printing” on copyright page. Top edge blue, clean pages. In the publisher’s dust jacket, fine condition, $6.95 price on front flap.
Inscribed on the front free endpaper: “To Frank Capra, whose life and great achievements represent the best in America. With appreciation of our friendship and with admiration for your great accomplishments. Warmest personal best wishes, Jerry Ford.”
A great association copy.
Frank Capra (1897-1991) was an Academy Award winning film director, known for films such as: It Happened One Night (1934), which won five Academy Awards, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). Capra won three Academy Awards for Best Director and was influential in shaping the narrative style of American cinema during its Golden Age. Capra was a longtime friend of Gerald Ford, retiring together in Ranch Mirage, California and frequently golfing together in celebrity tournaments. Shortly after the death of President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson asked Chief Justice Earl Warren to head a presidential commission investigating the assassination of the president. What was formally known as the President’s Commission quickly became known as the Warren Commission. Johnson asked a total of 7 people to serve on the commission, including the former Director of the CIA, Allen Dulles, and Michigan Representative Gerald R. Ford. Gerald R. Ford would go on to serve as President of the United States but would spend the rest of his life defending the lone gunman theory of the Warren Commission.
