Robert Dale Owen Signed Letter

, . 5 1/8" x 6 3/4" signed letter from Robert Dale Owen (1801-1877) dated May 5, 1865 at Cincinnati and addressed to publishers Mssrs. Tickner & Fields, acknowledging receipt of $50 as payment for his article on Hofwyl appearing in Atlantic Magazine that month, a fond history of his years at Hofwyl school, the independent self-governing private college in Switzerland to which Owen credited the molding of much of his character and philosophy. In addition to his notorious involvement with social reforms, Robert Dale Owen served in the Indiana legislature and the U.S. House Of Representatives (1843 to 1847), where he introduced and secured passage of the bill to establish the Smithsonian Institution, for which he was appointed to its first board of regents. Never without controversy, in the 1850 ‘s he turned to spiritualism, and while his book on the subject, "Footfalls On The Boundary Of Another World" was popular with the general public, it incurred ridicule from a number of his former associates. In 1853 President Franklin Pierce appointed him Minister to the Sicilies, a post which he held for five years. After retiring from active public service in 1864, Owen continued to write, producing three books and several articles for Atlantic Monthly and Scribners. Very Good Plus, clean, crisp, no chips or tears.