[Rarebooks] FS: Franklin Roosevelt SIGNED for Barry Goldwater: NAVAL SKETCHES OF THE WAR IN CALIFORNIA

[Charles Agvent]

[ROOSEVELT, Franklin D.] KNOX, Dudley W. NAVAL SKETCHES OF THE WAR IN 
CALIFORNIA. Reproducing Twenty-Eight Drawings Made in 1846-47 by William 
H. Meyers Gunner on the U. S. Sloop-of-War Dale. New York: Random House, 
1939. First Edition. Tall Folio (11" x 15-1/2") bound in marbled boards 
backed with white morocco leather and a gilt-lettered burgundy morocco 
spine label. One of 1000 copies printed at the Grabhorn Press. 
Illustrated with 28 full-page color plates by William H. Meyers. Heller 
and Magee, Bibliography of the Grabhorn Press, 1915-1940: 317: The 
method of color reproduction employed in NAVAL SKETCHES OF THE WAR IN 
CALIFORNIA is novel in the history of printing: first the original 
drawings were reproduced in black and white by a gravure process, then 
the color blocks were cut in linoleum, and printed over the black and 
white prints, shading was effected by sandpapering the linoleum. 
Introduction by Franklin D. Roosevelt. This copy is SIGNED on the front 
endpaper by Franklin Roosevelt for the Republican presidential 
challenger to Lyndon Baines Johnson, Barry Goldwater. Pasted below 
Roosevelt's signature is a TYPED LETTER SIGNED by his secretary Missy 
LeHand to Goldwater stating that he was signing the book for Goldwater 
whose bookplate is on the front pastedown. Spine is worn at the tips and 
along the spine edges with some loss of leather. Very Good.

Among the many collecting areas which occupied FDR, stamps and American 
naval iconography dominated his interests. His acquisition of Meyers's 
sketchbook was a profound event for him: "In many years of collecting 
sketches, paintings and engravings relating to the navy of the United 
States, I had found virtually none which had connections with naval 
operations in the Pacific in 1846 and 1847 (during the war with Mexico). 
When, therefore, I had the opportunity a few years ago of acquiring the 
original sketchbook of Gunner William H. Meyers, U.S.N., I realized its 
historical value." FDR paid $900 for the sketchbook, the highest he had 
ever paid for an item in his naval collection. It was purchased at a 
particularly spirited moment for FDR, however, being the first purchase 
he made following his election to the presidency in 1932. Roosevelt's 
introduction outlines his attraction to the subject: "By means of 
Meyers' realistic sketches now published for the first time, we are 
enabled to follow the epic naval conquest of California with an 
understanding which has heretofore been impossible... To all of us, and 
especially to the millions who dwell today on the shores of the Pacific 
Ocean, this pictorial record will emphasize the amazing strides of 
civilization in what was, within the memory of persons alive today, a 
primitive and inaccessible part of the world." (#018991)        $5,000.00

https://www.charlesagvent.com/shop/agvent/018991.html

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