Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - June - 2007 Issue
American Autographs from Joe Rubinfine
"Buffalo Bill" Cody relates some hard times.
Item 36 is a fascinating typed and signed letter from Theodore Roosevelt, dated May 12, 1911. In a letter to longtime family friend Louisa Lee Schuyler, Roosevelt, ironically, sharply attacks Republicans who left the party. At the time, dissatisfaction with the more conservative policies of Roosevelt's presidential successor, William Howard Taft, had led many of his old followers to abandon the party. In the letter, Roosevelt charges those who left the party with starting a "movement for evil" which put his New York opponent, William Barnes, "in command of our own party." This charge is both ironic and prophetic. It is ironic in that the following year, Roosevelt, too, would desert the Republicans to form his alternative party, the Progressives. This would lead to Taft's defeat in the election of 1912, though it was Democrat Woodrow Wilson, not Roosevelt, who was elected. The letter was prophetic in that the desertion of so many progressives would turn control of the party over to the conservatives, never to be restored to people with the same ideals as T.R. In another interesting comment, Roosevelt mentions, "Yes, I was very proud of Franklin's fight." Here he refers to the first election of his fifth cousin (and husband of his niece) Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the New York State Assembly. T.R. also expresses his support for the suffragist movement, saying, "You know I am rather a woman suffragist." $15,000.
Millard Fillmore wrote his sister-in-law Julia Fillmore on August 23, 1854. It was an unbearably painful time for the former president. His wife had died the previous year, and then, just a month prior to this letter, his 22-year-old daughter Abigail too had passed on. Now he was writing his sister-in-law who requested help with the estate of Fillmore's younger brother Charles, who had just died. Writes Fillmore, "Mrs. Fillmore & Abbie both gone and never to return. The thought was unendurable... I thought my cup was full, but it was not." Fillmore then tells his sister-in-law that he cannot provide much advice, other than to call on God to comfort her in her personal loss, and to get a good lawyer to help her with her financial issues. Item 12. $1,800.
William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody dropped a note, along with $100, to his printer in 1916. By then, he had sold his Wild West Show, but was still a well-paid performer, despite being 70 years of age. The show's stationery proclaims "Preparedness," code for opposition to Germany in the days before America entered the First World War. The show had just suffered a minor train wreck, and Cody writes, "Seems like this is an unlucky year for me." Not as unlucky as the next year, in which he died on just its tenth day. Item 7. $5,000.
Joe Rubinfine may be reached by telephone at 561-659-7077, or by email at Joerubinfine@mindspring.com.
