Franklin Roosevelt Writes To Help His Mistress's Daughter, Stunning Presentation -

Roosevelt Franklin

Franklin Roosevelt Writes to Help His Mistress's Daughter, Stunning Presentation

 

Single page autograph letter signed on White House letterhead, 6.5" x 8.75". Boldly signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt as "FDR". Presented matted and framed with a color enhanced and highlighted black and white portrait of Roosevelt to a completed size of 25" x 14". Frame lightly scratched along right side, the letter is in fine condition. Accompanied by the original White House transmittal envelope addressed in Roosevelt's hand, affixed to the verso of the frame in a plastic sleeve.

 

A fantastic autographed letter from President Roosevelt on White House stationery to "Norman", (Norman Davis), President of the Council on Foreign Relations regarding a job for Barbara Rutherford, the daughter of Roosevelt's long-standing mistress, Lucy Mercer Rutherford. Shown in full below:

 

"Dear Norman,

Barbara + her family think that she should rejoin them for the next few months - and I think that is best - It was good of you to give her this chance for training and she and I was very grateful - If this war does break out she will be working at it somewhere!

As ever

F.D.R."

 

Extremely rare letter by Roosevelt referencing a relationship between himself and Lucy Rutherford, even rarer still that it dates to at least the late 1930's when Roosevelt and Rutherford's relationship was supposedly dormant.

 

Lucy Mercer was born to wealthy parents who lost most of their fortune and separated in the years following her birth. Mercer then worked briefly in a dress store before taking a position as the social secretary of Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin's wife, in 1914. Mercer and Franklin are believed to have begun an affair in mid-1916, when she was 25 and he was 34, and prior to his paralytic illness. The relationship was discovered by Eleanor in September 1918, when she found a packet of their letters when unpacking his luggage upon his return from an inspection trip to the war zone in Europe while Assistant Secretary of the Navy near the end of the First World War in September 1918. Though Eleanor offered Franklin a divorce and Franklin considered accepting, political, financial, and familial pressures, including his mother threatening to cut off his inheritance, caused him to remain in the marriage. Franklin terminated the affair and promised not to see Mercer again. Mercer soon married wealthy socialite Winthrop Rutherfurd, a widower then in his fifties, but despite her marriage and Franklin's promise, the two remained in surreptitious, albeit infrequent contact in the three decades that followed and in fact, she was present with Roosevelt at the time of his death.

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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