HOOVER, HERBERT. (1874-1964). Thirty-first president of the United States. TLS. (“Herbert Hoover”). 1/2p. 4to. N.p., June 24, 1936. On a sheet of his imprinted stationery to Mrs. George H. Lorimer, wife of the editor-in-chief of The Saturday Evening Post.
“I want you to know how deeply I appreciate your message about the Cleveland speech.
I am grateful for it…”
Hoover left the White House in 1932 defeated and embarrassed, “a lonely and bitter figure, shunned by many former friends” (DAB). He first moved to Palo Alto and then New York, whence our letter was likely written. In 1934 he published The Challenge to Liberty, following it up with an eight-volume work entitled Addresses Upon the American Road, published between 1936 and 1961. In 1936, the same year as our letter, Hoover was elected chairman of the Boys Club of America, and established the Hoover Library on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, for which he had been a trustee since 1912.
Hoover and publishing giant George H. Lorimer enjoyed a lifelong friendship. When Lorimer became editor-in-chief, the Saturday Evening Post “was an elderly and indisposed magazine” (ibid). Under his direction, it became an immensely successful and influential publication, known for featuring the work of leading contemporary writers and thinkers. Like Hoover, Lorimer believed that “business is or should be the specialty of government,” (ibid). Initially progressive, with Lorimer’s drift to the right, the Post later “became an active — if unofficial — organ of the Republican party. Lorimer knew many presidents personally, and nearly every president during his editorship contributed to the Post, but he was most active in promoting the fortunes of Herbert Hoover” (ibid).
Boldly signed and very fine.
