A history of the world in the first half of the 20th century is contained in 17 lots from a Skibbereen autograph collector to be sold at Whyte’s in Dublin on September 20. Political leaders from Konrad Adenaur and Paul Spaak to Moshe Dayan, Archibishop Makarios and Constantine Karamanlis, military personnages like Field Marshall Montgomery, literary figures like Boris Pasternak, British Prime Ministers Anthony Eden and Clement Attlee and celebrities like the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and James Cagney are peppered through this collection.
Michael O’Sullivan, now retired and still living in Skibbereen, wrote to and received replies from people like Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser and Franco of Spain, Admiral Jerauld Wright, Commander in Chief, the US Atlantic Fleet and astronomer Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell, builder of the Jodrell Bank telescope which tracked Sputnik in 1957. There were apologetic refusals from, among others, The Queen of England, Winston Churchill, Harold MacMillan, Lord Home, President Eisenhower and the Shan of Iran. Many responded with signed photographs. Most replies are on official notepaper.
The autographs were locked away safely for 50 years. Now he has decided to sell them.
A letter, typical of many, which arrived at Michael O’Sullivan’s home in Skibbereen in the 1950’s
An autograph from Boris Pasternak, best known outside Russia as author of Doctor Zhivago.