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Lot 355
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20th C. British & American Military Leaders, Ex-Forbes
20th C. British & American Military Leaders, Ex-Forbes
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Description:

Military Leaders
various, 1911-ca. 1980s
20th C. British & American Military Leaders, Ex-Forbes
Archive
This small but rich archive includes three letters and a photograph signed by leading figures of the British and American armed forces in the twentieth century. They include a letter by Field Marshal Roberts, who became a symbol of the British Army early in the century; General of the U.S. Army George C. Marshall, who served as Chief of Staff during World War II, organized the Marshall Plan to rebuild post-war Europe, and became the only American general ever to receive the Nobel Peace Prize; Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the "Father of the Nuclear Navy" in the United States; and General James Doolittle, a pioneer aviator who led the famous Doolittle raid on Japan in 1942.

MILITARY LEADERS, Archive of 3 letters and signed photograph, 1911-ca. 1980s. 7 pp. Please refer to catalog photos for additional information related to condition. Ex-Collection of Steve Forbes.

Details and Excerpts
- Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, Typed Letter Signed, to Coulson Kernahan, May 18, 1911, Ascot, Berkshire, England. 2 pp., 5" x 8".
"I think that your articles on ‘The Territorial Army and Invasion' are excellent, and I hope they will appear shortly in ‘Everybody's Weekly.'
"I do not of course bind myself down to agreement with all the details such, for instance, as your suggestion of having a Regular Officer in command of every unit of the Territorial Force. On the whole, however, I highly approve of what you have written and am convinced that your articles will help greatly in the education of the public mind, and enable people to form a sound opinion on the vital question of Home Defence."
Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts (1832-1914) was born in India to an Anglo-Irish family, he joined the East India Company Army and served as a young officer in the Indian Rebellion, earning the Victoria Cross. He then transferred to the British Army and served as Commander-in-Chief, India, before leading British forces for a year in the Second Boer War. He was one of Britain's leading military figures at the height of the British Empire. Later in life, he became a proponent of stronger defense measures in response to the increasing threat of the German Empire in the years leading up to World War I.
John Coulson Kernahan (1858-1943) was an English novelist, writer, and journalist.

- General George C. Marshall, Typed Letter Signed, to Lawrence E. Spivak, July 17, 1956, Washington, D.C. 1 p., 7" x 9". Includes unsigned typed copy of Spivak to Marshall, July 2, 1956.
General George C. Marshall gently declines Lawrence E. Spivak's request for an interview: "As you know, I have been away from active Government service almost five years, during which time Mrs. Marshall and I have been doing things that we wanted to do for many years. And, except for one or two commitments made a long time ago, we are limiting our activities to those which are strictly social."
George Catlett Marshall Jr. (1880-1959) was born in Pennsylvania and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1901. He joined the Army as a second lieutenant in 1902 and graduated from the Army Staff College in 1908. During World War I, he served as a key planner for the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe. Commanding various units between the world wars, he rose to the rank of brigadier general. In 1938, he joined the staff of the War Department. He became Army Chief of Staff in 1939 and served in that position until 1945. He organized the largest expansion of the military in U.S. history and received a promotion to the five-star rank as General of the Army. He retired from active service in 1945 but remained on active duty. He served as Secretary of State from 1947 to 1949, when he helped organize the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe and prevent the spread of Soviet communism. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. He served as Secretary of Defense from 1950 to 1951 and oversaw the removal in April 1951 of General Douglas MacArthur from command to reassert civilian control over the military. Marshall retired in 1951 and died at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. on October 16, 1959.
Lawrence E. Spivak (1900-1994) was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Harvard University in 1921. He became a magazine journalist for several years, including serving as business manager (1934-1939), owner (1939-1950), and editor (1944-1950) of The American Mercury literary magazine. In 1945, he and a fellow journalist created and began co-producing Meet the Press as a radio program, which continued until 1950. They began a television edition in 1947, and although he sold the program to NBC in 1955, he remained as a moderator, producer, and panelist until retiring in 1975.

- Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, Typed Letter Signed, to Congressman Rodney M. Love, August 30, 1965, USS Benjamin Franklin, at sea in the North Atlantic Ocean. Most of the letter is Rickover's extended review of Benjamin Franklin's life and accomplishments. 3 pp., 8" x 10.5". Includes typed letter by "John" to "Jack and Liz," August 14, 1961, Wittman, Maryland, regarding an upcoming visit.
"We have just successfully completed the first sea trials of the USS BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, our thirtieth Polaris nuclear submarine. We also have in operation twenty-two attack type nuclear submarines, making a total of fifty-two." (p1)
"This ship is named for Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), one of the most illustrious of our Founding Fathers. A plain man of the people, his life was the American success story writ large." (p1)
"His philosophy of life, the virtues he cultivated—competent workmanship, honesty, industry and frugality—are within everyone's grasp; they are as important to a good and successful life today as in his time. No American child ought to grow to adulthood without having read the Autobiography of this talented, wise and good man, who personified all that is best in America. ‘Merely by being himself,' wrote Mark van Doren, ‘he dignified and glorified his country.'" (p3)
Hyman G. Rickover (1900-1986) was born in Russian Poland into a Polish Jewish family and migrated to New York City with his family in 1906. Two years later, they moved to Chicago. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1922 and was commissioned an ensign. He served on a destroyer and battleship before earning a master's degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University in 1930. He served on submarines from 1929 to 1933 and commanded a minesweeper for three months in 1937, but was soon sent to Washington for work in the Bureau of Engineering. During World War II, he did repair and inspection duties and gained a reputation as a man who got things done. Rickover became an early proponent of the idea of nuclear propulsion for naval vessels, both submarines and surface ships. He led a team that developed a reliable nuclear reactor that could power submarines, the first being the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered vessel, launched in 1954. Promoted to vice admiral in 1958, Rickover received the first of two Congressional Gold Medals. Over the next three decades, Rickover interviewed and approved or rejected every officer being considered for a nuclear ship, eventually numbering in the tens of thousands of interviews. The Secretary of the Navy eventually forced Rickover's retirement in January 1982, just after his eighty-second birthday, after sixty-three years of service in the U.S. Navy under thirteen presidents.
Rodney M. Love (1908-1996) was born in Dayton, Ohio, and graduated from the Ohio State University in 1930 and from the University of Dayton Law School in 1933. He was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1964 and served from 1965 to 1967 but was unsuccessful in his reelection bid. He served as a judge of the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court from 1968 to 1980.

- James H. Doolittle, Signed Photograph, Inscribed to Gary Lorenz "With every good wish," n.d. (ca. 1980s). Portrait by Jim Sloan. 1 p., 8" x 10".
James H. Doolittle (1896-1993) was born in California, grew up in Alaska, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1922. Three years later, he received the first doctorate in aeronautics issued in the United States, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a pioneering aviator and served as a flying instructor during World War I. He was recalled to active duty in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. In April 1942, four months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he led the Doolittle Raid, a long-range air raid on some of the main islands of Japan. The success of the raid boosted American morale, and Doolittle received the Medal of Honor for his role. He was promoted to lieutenant general and commanded the Twelfth Air Force over Africa, the Fifteenth Air Force over the Mediterranean, and the Eighth Air Force over Europe during World War II. He retired from the Air Force in 1959 but remained active in technical fields.
Gary Lorenz (b. 1950) is an autograph collector in Monona, Wisconsin, who worked for the U.S. Postal Service.

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