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214

William Randolph Hearst

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:7,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD
William Randolph Hearst

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Auction Date:2012 Nov 14 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, 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
A superb collection of eight ALSs, several in pencil, together with two additional letters from other correspondents bearing ANSs from Hearst, all dating from 1934–1936, with a total of 21 pages. The majority of the letters are addressed to Joseph Willicombe, a reporter from the New York American who worked as Hearst's personal secretary from the early 1920s to the 1940s.

Of tremendous interest is Hearst's ANS written at the bottom of a letter to Willicombe from Frank Gervasi, who worked for the Italian Universal News Service. His TLS, dated August 31, 1936, transmitting a message from "The Italian Government [who] has asked me to communicate to Mr. Hearst that the Duce deeply regrets that it was impossible for him to meet Mr. Hearst when he was in Rome and that should Mr. Hearst return to Rome after his visit to Venice, Signor Mussolini would be most anxious to see him." At the close of the letter Hearst writes following reply (with pencilled corrections) on the bottom and reverse of Gervasi's letter: "I am about to leave for America and I recall my Italian tour and your Kindness with much pleasure. I appreciate the communication...of the Italian Government, which you conveyed to me regarding his willingness to receive me when I come again to Italy. I did not want to occupy the Duce's time with unimportant matters when he was engaged in affairs of such immense consequence to Italy and to the world. The fight which the Duce is making for civilization and orderly government is not merely for Italy, not merely for Europe but for the western hemisphere as well. He is the Duce of orderly progress everywhere. It is my hope that all thoughtful, capable and creative people everywhere in every civilized land will…cooperate to dam the flood of riot criminal violence which is miscalled communism…"

Another letter in the collection would suggest that Hearst was more of an opportunist than a rigid ideologue. On September 23, 1935, Frank Barnam, President and Publisher of the Herald Express and a business partner to Hearst, wrote to Willicombe to gauge Heart's interest in meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Enclosing a telegram inviting Hearst to meet with FDR in reference to the President's campaign against polio, Barnam writes to Willicombe, in part: "As you will recall, I was chairman of the President's Birthday Ball Committee in this district last spring and anything we can all do to help stamp out this terrible disease would be a boone[sic] to humanity. If he agrees with me, I would like to telegraph them that I would like to meet with the President. I would appreciate hearing from you as soon as possible as I must telegraph my reply." At the bottom of the page, Hearst hurriedly replies: "Good Lord NO I haven't any objection to you meeting the President or the King of England or Mussolini or Haile Salassie. It does us good to meet those big folks and it does them good to meet us. W.R."

The subject matter in the balance of the correspondence concerns a variety of matters including the preparation for parties at San Simeon, repairs to the house, requests for wine , travel arrangements and other matters typically assigned to a personal assistant. One of the letters mentions Marion Davies, his long-time love interest: "How can we get some Sparkling Moselle of fine quality. Marion likes it." Other letters concern the development of Heart's estate at San Simeon.

In overall very good condition. The collection includes more correspondence from Hearst that provides an intimate portrait of the life of a personal assistant to one of the most powerful media moguls of the twentieth century.
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