Description:

Truman Harry

Harry Truman Early ALS Discussing His Library

 

Single page autograph letter signed 6.5" x 8.5", on his letterhead of Harry S. Truman, Federal Reserve Bank Building, Kansas City 6, Missouri. Dated "June 1, 1953", and boldly signed by Harry Truman in full signature as "Harry Truman". Near fine with center fold. Accompanied by the original unstamped mailing envelope, 6.75" x 4.5".

 

A fantastic letter, very early in the process of conceiving the Truman library. After Eisenhower’s inauguration in January 1953, and as Truman just left office after his second term, Harry and Bess Truman traveled by train from Washington to their home in Independence. There the former president penned his memoirs, met with visitors, continued his habit of brisk daily walks and raised funds for the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, which opened in Independence in 1957.

 

The Harry S. Truman Library, the first Presidential Library to be created under the provisions of the 1955 Presidential Libraries Act, was established to preserve the papers, books, and other historical materials relating to former President Harry S. Truman and to make them available to the people in a place suitable for exhibit and research. The Library building, which cost $1,750,000, was built by the Harry S. Truman Library Inc., a private corporation, with funds donated by more than 17,000 individuals and organizations from all parts of the country. The building and Mr. Truman's Presidential papers were transferred to the Government at a dedication ceremony held on July 6, 1957, and attended by Government officials of both parties. Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the principal address. This lovely letter by Truman is the earliest we have handled in which he already is discussing plans for his library, shown in part below:

 

"Dear Dave: This will intro Mr. Raymond Rich, who is interested in our Library.

 

He is a friend of Dr. Graham. He will talk with you on the subject … "

 

Truman's love of libraries and books began early in life. As a boy, his poor eyesight limited his ability to play sports or enjoy many outdoor activities, so he spent much of his time reading. A grade school and high school classmate of his at Independence High School, Henry Chiles, recalled seeing "Harry go home many a time with two or three books on weekends, and I guess by Monday he had them all read. The rest of us just read Jesse James, these little paperback books."

Truman, he said, "read more history than anybody. He was a great historian." On one occasion, Chiles recalled an argument among the children about the Dalton Gang: "Harry came in—we got the history mixed up ourselves—but Harry came in and straightened it out, just who were the Dalton brothers and how many got killed. Things like that the boys had a lot of respect for; they didn't call him sissy." Truman himself made a similar point—he admitted that wearing glasses could give a boy an "inferiority complex," which made one lonely and necessitated being "intellectually above" the name-callers. But having proved oneself smarter than others, one had to "be careful not to lord it over those that you’ve defeated" in the classroom.

In 1894, at age 10, his mother presented him with a four-volume set of books by Charles F. Horne, Great Men and Famous Women, which contained biographies of people such as Napoleon, Benjamin Franklin, and Robert E. Lee. He found that reading history was "solid instruction and wise teaching which I somehow felt that I wanted and needed." At about the same time, Truman’s mother gave him a "blackboard on the back of which was a column of about four or five paragraphs on every President up to that time, which included Grove Cleveland, and that’s where I got interested in the history of the country." A prolific reader as a youth, Truman later claimed to have read every volume—at least 2,000 books—in the Independence Library, including encyclopedias, by the age of 14.

Truman applied the lessons he learned from history in his 30 years of public service. The events of his momentous seven and a half years in office have been exhaustively documented. What is less appreciated is how often President Truman looked to history for guidance in reaching such wide-ranging decisions as the establishment of the United Nations, the ending of World War II, the economy, the renovation of the White House, civil rights, the recognition of Israel, the Korean War, and the seizure of the steel mills during the Korean War. In making those decisions and others, President Truman drew upon his reading and understanding of history. 

It is apropos that Truman would be the first President to have a Presidential library created under the provisions of the 1955 Presidential Libraries Act.


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