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LOT #42252 |
Starting Bid: $3,000
Dwight D. Eisenhower Autographed Letter Signed...
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Description
Dwight D. Eisenhower Writes to Wife Mamie from Algiers
Dwight D. Eisenhower Autographed Letter Signed
("Ike"). Three pages, 8 x 10 1/2 inches; [Algeria]; February
28, [1943].Eisenhower writes to his wife, Mamie, as Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces stationed in Algiers, Algeria. In part:
"Sunday morning, and for some reason there seems to be a few minutes of calm and quiet in this office. Always, at such times, I like to start a letter to you, because I've never seen where my next opportunity will come (- Actually I was interrupted by Ernest at this point, but shooed him out). I suspect that, at times, he feels he leads a devil of an existence. But when I come back from a visit to the boys that are living in this cold and rain and mush, high up in the cold hills of Tunisia, I cannot get sorry for those living back here in comfort!
You must not worry about me. Everyone is exceedingly careful as to my safety, whether I'm travelling by road or by plane - it seems to me a hundred unnecessary precautions are taken.
It would be difficult to tell you how much I agree with your idea of just getting together after this war is over and never letting anything part us again. Sometimes I get so homesick for you I don't know what to do. But I always know this - for me there is only one ambition with respect to a woman - that is to come a-running to you and hold on to you firmly, forever."
While stationed in North Africa, rumors spread among senior officials and, subsequently, the press, regarding Eisenhower's relationship with his driver, Kay Summersby, nicknamed "Irish". Summersby would later publish a memoir, Past Forgetting, detailing the affair, but, at the time of the letter, Mamie Eisenhower, a formidable hostess, household manager, and devoted army wife, and would later, as First Lady, manage not only scheduling and expenses during her husband's time in office, but also the White House staff itself, was forced to confront public scrutiny over photographs of the pair, inseparable during the Generals' official functions, the press even attributing Eisenhower's success in Europe and North Africa to the calm and stability Summersby's companionship offered him during what was, admittedly, an immensely stressful war campaign. Eisenhower, aware of the rumors, assuages his wife:
"You must realize that in such a confined life as we lead here sorts of stories, gossip, lies and etc. can get started without the slightest foundation in fact. I don't even let any people tell me what they are - my poor brain is sufficiently burdened with things that are true. So I want you to know that you can smile at anything - I'm trying to do my duty, every day, and my only hope is that this war will be over quietly so I can go over with you, minute by minute, everything that's happened to either of us since I last saw you.
I'm afraid I must stop. I started this at 8:15. Its now 11:00...I think a carrier leaves this p.m., and I don't want this note to miss him. I love you - only!! Always.
Ike."
Condition: Fine. Expected folds and age commensurate toning; an excellent example.
Auction Info
2026 June 19 The John H. Freund Americana Collection Signature® Auction #6331 (go to Auction Home page)
Proxy Bidding Ends
June
19th
Friday
10:50 am CT
Auction Dates
June
19th
Friday
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12 Days
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(Lots 42001-42298) - 11:00 AM Central Time, Friday, June 19, 2026.
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