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John F. Kennedy (2) Typed Letters Signed

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:15,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
John F. Kennedy (2) Typed Letters Signed

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Auction Date:2021 May 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Two early TLSs by John F. Kennedy, pertaining to a wreath sent for the memorial of Peter George Alexander St. Clair-Erskine, who had been killed while in active service with the Royal Air Force on September 8, 1939, one week after German forces invaded Poland, an event that triggered the start of World War II. The letterhead Kennedy uses was almost certainly obtained from the office of his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., who was then into his second year as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Includes:

TLS signed "John F. Kennedy," one page, 8 x 10.5, Foreign Service of the United States letterhead, September 15, 1939. Letter to Charles R. Nasmith, American Consul at Edinburgh, in full: "I want to thank you for your kindness in sending the wreath out to Rosslyn Chapel. Both my sister and I appreciate it very much‚ I am sorry it was on such short notice. I am leaving next Friday for America, so if you could let me have the bill, I will send you up a check immediately."

TLS signed "Jack Kennedy," one page, 8 x 10.5, blindstamped American Embassy letterhead, September 19, 1939. Also to Nasmith, in part: "I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of September 18. I am enclosing a check for 25/- in payment for the flowers sent to Rosslyn Chapel. Again I wish to thank you for your kind co-operation in this matter." The deceased airman was the brother of John F. Kennedy's friend Anthony St Clair-Erskine, 6th Earl of Rosslyn.

Includes three carbon copies of letters from Nasmith to Edward E. Moore, private secretary to JFK's father, regarding the arrangements for bringing the flowers to Rosslyn Chapel; plus a TLS by Moore, enclosing a check from the ambassador as a reimbursement for the flowers. Per one of the carbon copies, the check was returned as JFK had already paid the bill. In overall very good to fine condition, with light creasing to both JFK letters, heaviest to their upper right corners.

Two weeks before writing these letters, on September 3, 1939, the same day that Britain and France declared war on Germany following its invasion of Poland, the passenger liner SS Athenia became the first UK ship to be sunk by German forces in World War II. Among the Athenia’s 1,103 passengers, 311 were U.S. citizens, and those that were rescued were safely transported to Glasgow. Unable to leave London, Ambassador Kennedy sent his 22-year-old son and personal secretary John F. Kennedy to visit the American survivors on his behalf.

The event was a pivotal one for Kennedy, who by October had returned to Harvard after his six-month European sabbatical with a reshaped political mindset. He had, initially, like his father, considered the prospect of war remote, but the sinking of the Athenia and the concurrent war declaration pressed upon Kennedy greatly. After the fall of Poland, JFK wrote an editorial for the Harvard University newspaper entitled Peace in Our Time, and then began work on his honors thesis, which discussed the British appeasement that led to war; the final product would be published as a book in 1940, under the title Why England Slept. Unique, early, and poignant correspondence from a young JFK.