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  • Posts Tagged ‘roosevelt’

    ROOSEVELT AND YEATS AT MEALY’S BOOK SALE

    Friday, July 8th, 2011

    Letters from Theodore Roosevelt at Mealy's book sale. (Click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,800

    US President Theodore Roosevelt and Irish poet William Butler Yeats are among the personalities to feature at a Mealy’s sale in Dublin on July 19. An archive of Yeats letters and a presidential correspondence  are among outstanding items in the 670 lot auction of the Fred Hanna Collection at the D4 Hotel.
    The Yeats archive comprises 13 letters and cards mostly from 1898 to journalist and former MP Thomas Gill.  T.P. Gill (1858 – 1931), from Co. Tipperary was an Irish Party M.P. 1885 – 1892. He resigned after failing to heal the breach over Parnell. In August 1898 he became editor of the Dublin Daily Express, with a brief to expand its arts coverage. Until he lost the job in Sept. 1899 he had considerable powers of artistic patronage, and so was of great interest to Yeats, and his literary colleagues. In 1900 Gill became Secretary of the Dept. of Agriculture and Technical Instruction in Dublin, another influential post which he held for 20 years.

    The Yeats Archive at Mealy's book sale. (Click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: THIS LOT WAS WITHDRAWN.

    The letters show how, in 1899, Gill was consulted  over a disagreement with Edward Martyn over the theological soundness of ‘The Countess Cathleen’ (a verse drama by Yeats dedicated to Maud Gonne). In a letter of May 22 of that year Yeats suggests that the Express might quote Max Beerbohm’s comments on the play. In a 1900 note Yeats says he thinks George Moore would accept a seat in Parliament, ‘if he had a definite offer of a seat without a contest.’ An unsigned typescript letter to Yeats, probably from Gill, advises him to go ahead with ‘The Countess Cathleen’ and to pay no heed to the theologians.  The correspondence is estimated at 8,000-14,000.
    Lot 495 is a correspondence from Theordore Roosevelt to T.P. Gill, with whom there is apparently a family connection.  It includes a typescript signed letter on White House headed paper from Roosevelt to Gill, Sept. 1903, thanking him for sending the ‘Cucullain Saga.’ ‘I had ordered it myself and have now cancelled the order and have ordered Douglas Hyde’s “A Literary History of Ireland”. There is a presidential Visiting Card inscribed by Roosevelt  ‘With hearty thanks for your congratulations’ addressed to T.P. Gill, Department of Agriculture, Dublin.
    A typed signed letter from Roosevelt (in London) to Gill, 28 May 1910 confirms arrangements for a meeting, ‘It is as you know, the most difficult thing in the world for me to get any time for myself. But come in at 5.30 on Thursday next .. and I will do my best.’  There is banquet programme for Eighth Annual Banquet of New York Society of the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America, April, 29, 1904 and a collection of  Presidential documents and memorabilia.  The estimate for the correspondence is 2,000-3,000.
    The catalogue for the sale is on-line at www.mealys.com

    WHYTE’S ROOSEVELT LETTER

    Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

    Whyte’s history, literature and collectibles sale in Dublin on November 13 features an interesting collection of letters and ephemera relating to Frederick Wallingford Whitridge, American envoy to the wedding of King Alfonso and Princess Ena of Battenberg, a niece of King Edward VII of Great Britain, and granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

    It includes an official appointment document signed by President Theodore Roosevelt and dated April 25, 1906.  This nominates him as: “Ambassador Extraordinary of the United States of America on Special Mission as the representative of the United States government on the occasion of the wedding of King Alphonso XIII of Spain in June 1906″.

    Other documents include a letter by Secretary of State Elihu Root, transmitting the commission to Whitridge and referring to a letter from President Roosevelt to be presented to the King of Spain by Whitridge.
    There are two typed letters on White House notepaper dated April 9 and 26, 1906 respectively: a congratulatory letter and the second refers to the enclosure of two letters from Roosevelt to King Edward VII of England and the German Emperor; there is a report of the mission which includes details of an attempt to assassinate King Alfonso when a bomb was thrown as the Royal Carriage passed.  This refers to the numbers killed and wounded.
    The collection of 22 items is estimated at 1,000-1,500 euro.
    UPDATE:  IT WAS LEFT UNSOLD