Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2008 Issue
Autographs and Letters from David Schulson
American/French singer Josephine Baker.
Item 52 is a most difficult letter from Dolley Madison, wife of President James Madison and one of America's best-known first ladies. Her husband died on June 28, 1836, so she was still deeply in mourning when she wrote this letter on September 7, 1836. She acknowledges correspondence from the recipient of this letter, apologizes for being so late in responding, but notes her own busy schedule and ill health that forced her to have her niece write her letters. She then speaks of her main task at the time, preparing for the publication of her husband's papers. She writes, "The writings left me by my lamented husband engross my attention - I have been engaged with others in copying and preparing them for the press, and my aspirations for the fulfillment of his wishes are supported against the difficulties to be encountered by a consciousness of their importance." $1,800.
Josephine Baker was a most notable singer and dancer, a black American woman who broke the color barrier in concert halls and movies in the 1930s. However, her greatest fame came in France, to which she moved and obtained citizenship in 1937. Without the segregation she experienced in America, she was freer to become a star, and she became a huge one in her adoptive land. Baker assisted the French Underground during the war, receiving the highest of honors, the Croix de Guerre. However, she did still continue to participate in the American civil rights movement, speaking at Martin Luther King's great March on Washington in 1963. Item 5 is a signed photograph of Baker, with an inscription in French and the date 1937. $1,400.
David Schulson Autographs may be contacted at 973-379-3800 or schulson@aol.com. Their web address is schulsonautographs.com.
