Description:

Taft Helen

1pp ALS inscribed on the first page and signed by former First Lady Helen H. Taft as “Helen H. Taft” on “Fassifern Cottage, Pointe-au-Pic, P.Q., Canada” letterhead. The following three pages of bifold cream stationery with dark blue fibers are blank, each page measuring 5.375" x 6.875". In near fine condition. Accompanied by a matching envelope bearing a 2 cent Canadian green stamp commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the Confederation, postmarked from Pointe-au-Pic on August 4th, circa 1927.

 

Helen H. Taft wrote this letter to Philadelphia high school teacher Sharpless Dodson Green. A determined autograph seeker, Green had probably written requesting a signed copy of Helen Taft’s book "Recollections of Full Years", originally published by Dodd, Mead & Company in 1914. Helen Taft kindly lets her admirer know that she has not yet received the book, so that he “can make some inquiries” about its whereabouts.

 

Helen H. Taft (1861-1943) and her husband 27th U.S. President William H. Taft (1857-1930) vacationed for over forty years at a summer residence at Pointe-au-Pic near Charlevoix facing Murray Bay in southern Quebec. Their summer home Fassifern Cottage was a hodgepodge of add-ons and ells, ever expanding to accommodate the growing Taft family and their house guests. The Midwestern Tafts were famous for their warm hospitality and enthusiastic entertaining. The Taft’s summer season usually culminated with William’s birthday bash on September 15th, where it was not uncommon for Helen to feed up to eighty guests.

 

In 1927, William H. Taft was over half way through his tenure as 10th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; he would die on the bench three years later.

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