Beautiful Thoughts by Tiny Tim (Herbert Khaury) - 1969

Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1969. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR and 60's cultural phenomenon Tiny Tim on verso of front end page - "To Miss Peggy Happy Reading Tiny Tim", in red ink and accompanied by an utterly charming drawing by Tiny Tim of a woman reading. Laid in is a letter establishing the provenance, dated 6-21-69, and sent from Seattle, which reads - "Yesterday morning I was in the Union Book Store buying up all the Camus & Sartre when I heard someone say, "Guess who's in the store ! Tiny Tim ! ". I thought to myself- this is surely a put-on, however I'll go see. Sure enough there he was autographing these strange little books. Thought maybe you'd get a kick out of one of them, Miss Peggy. After autographing books for awhile he sang "Stout-hearted Man". If this fellow isn't a put-on he's probably one of the world's truly nice-guys. Anyway it made for a fantastic morning. I felt like a little kid standing there watching, listening, talking, and utterly enjoying every minute of it. Have fun with the book. (signed) Dave (ps on verso of letter) "Stout-hearted Man"? I swear it's true. Even his manager just about broke up when he started singing it." RARE SIGNED, and especially with such an endearing provenance. Book is Fine, in a Near Fine, price-clipped dust jacket. Tiny Tim, the performance alias of Herbert Khaury (1932-1996), became a culturlal phenomenon with his 1967 appearance on Rowan and Martin's "Laugh-In". After appearing several more times on that show, he became best known for his appearances on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson", marrying his 17 year-old girlfriend, "Miss Vicki", on Carson's show in 1969. His star began to wane after he toured the country in 1970, his tour making him good money but then being the truly nice and naive person he was, he was fleeced by his business associates. Nonetheless, he continued to tour and perform , in ever smaller venues, up until the time of his death in 1996. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR and with the letter, a unique and lovely bit of 60's memorabilia. . SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR. First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Near Fine. Illus. by Frazier Hauge. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall.