Description
The first edition of The True Story of Fala, FDR’s Scottish Terrier, by Margaret “Daisy” Suckley and signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. One of three known examples signed by Roosevelt.
Octavo, [8], 62pp, [2]. Illustrated boards, wear along bottom edge of boards, faint offsetting to endpapers. Numerous in-text illustrations, and photographic plates. Paperclip residue on rear endpapers, now removed. In the publisher’s dust jacket, $1.75 on the front flap, chip on rear panel, closed tears along the spine, a very good example.
(Halter, 871) (Horowitz, 109)
Signed on the half-title by the author: “by Margaret L. Suckley / Rhinebeck, N.Y. / 1942.” Additionally signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt on the front free endpaper, one of three known examples signed by the President.
This copy includes a handwritten letter from Littleton Hambley, the brother-in-law of Margaret Suckley, referencing this copy: “Washington, D.C. / Dec-17-1942/ Dear Lewis: As you see the ‘True Story of Fala’ has been autographed by both the author and the President. This little dog is the one my sister-in-law, Margaret Suckley, gave to the President. My ‘Rollie’ had the task and privilege of training him as a wee pup. The illustrations were done by Elizabeth Fairchild a friend of our family. Be sure that the boys take good care of it as the autograph is really quite valuable. We hope you all enjoy a pleasant Xmas in spite of these wretched war conditions…”
Fala, originally named “Murray the Outlaw of Falahill” after a Scottish ancestor of Roosevelt’s family, was a black Scottish Terrier given to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 by his close confidante Margaret “Daisy” Suckley. The terrier became so popular that he received fan mail and was even the subject of Roosevelt’s humorous 1944 “Fala speech,” in which the president joked about Republican accusations that taxpayers had paid to retrieve the dog from the Aleutian Islands. After FDR’s death in 1945, Fala lived with Eleanor Roosevelt at Hyde Park until his own death in 1952. He is buried alongside the Roosevelts in Hyde Park.
