WHITHER BOUND by Roosevelt, Franklin D - 1926

Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1926. vii,34pp. Large octavo. Blue cloth, stamped in gilt and blind. Gilt morocco bookplate of Hannah D. Rabinowitz, light offset to endsheet gutters, as usual, otherwise a fine copy, in quite substantially chipped printed dust jacket. Half morocco slipcase and chemise. First edition of the future President's first book, printing the text of a lecture given for the benefit of the Alumni War Memorial Foundation at Milton Academy. Inscribed by Roosevelt on the occasion of publication (and within a month of the delivery of the lecture): "For my son Elliott Roosevelt [/] This copy of his Dad's [/] first book [/] Franklin D. Roosevelt [/] June 1926," and signed again by him on the title-page. Elliott (1910-1990) was the fourth of six Roosevelt children, and was acknowledged as Eleanor's favorite among them. His future career included military service, involvement in aircraft procurement (including a difficult issue involving his association with Hughes Aircraft), and roles as author, rancher, radio station owner and Mayor of Miami Beach. Although this book was published in a modest edition of only a thousand copies, it took a number of years for the edition to be exhausted. Laid in is a small clipping from the NYTBR about Elliott's sale of books from the Hyde Park library to Rosenbach, mentioning this book in particular. A highly desirable copy with a very personal association.