Description:

Nixon Richard 1913 - 1994 Less than six months after the end of his eight years as Vice President, Richard Nixon writes stockbroker Jack Dreyfus that he is "not interested in investing in so-called 'safe' stock ... I prefer to make an investment involving risks and providing a consequently greater opportunity for capital gain..."

Typed Letter Signed "Dick," 1 page, 7.25" x 10.5". [Los Angeles], July 12, 1961. To financier Jack Dreyfus, New York. On his engraved Richard Nixon letterhead. With the original postmarked envelope with Los Angeles return address. Fine condition.


In part, "As I discussed with you on the phone a week or so ago, I have been reviewing my financial situation over the past few weeks and have reached the conclusion that I should make a substantial investment in stock which would provide me an opportunity for capital gain. Present indications are that from the advance payment I am receiving from my book and from income from my law practice in excess of my living expenses I will have at least forty or fifty thousand dollars available for investment in stock at this time.

"As I told you, I am not interested in investing in so-called 'safe' stock with a substantial guarantee of dividend income. Because of my capital position and the high income I will be receiving from earnings over the next five years, I prefer to make an investment involving risks and providing a consequently greater opportunity for capital gain. Recalling our several conversations with regard to Polaroid ... explore to possibility of my purchasing a call on a thousand shares of Polaroid stock..." Read the entire letter in the image above.

Financier Jack Dreyfus (1913-2009) founded the brokerage house Dreyfus & Co. in 1947; it developed into the Dreyfus Fund. In 1964, Life magazine called him the "Maverick Wizard Behind the Wall Street Lion," in reference to the emblem of his fund and its aggressive marketing. Dreyfus, it said, was "the most singular and effective personality to appear in Wall Street since the days of Joseph Kennedy and Bernard Baruch." His paternal grandfather was a first cousin of Alfred Dreyfus, the protagonist of the late 19th-century anti-Semitic scandal known as the Dreyfus Affair. Dreyfus sold his mutual fund company in 1970 and established the Dreyfus Health Foundation to pursue other medical applications for Dilantin which had cured his depression in the 1960s. In 2000, Dreyfus said that an account in The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon by Anthony Summers (New York: Viking, 2000) that he gave Dilantin to Richard Nixon in 1968 was correct. Dreyfus said he gave Nixon a bottle of 1,000 capsules of 100 milligrams each ''when his mood wasn't too good,'' and later gave him another bottle of 1,000 capsules.

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