TLS Setting Conditions for His Lecture Tour

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BYRD, RICHARD E. (1888-1957). Polar explorer and aviator; the first to fly over the South Pole. TLS. (“Dick”). 1p. 4to. “On Lecture Tour” in Boston, April 3, 1931. On his Brimmer Street stationery. To JAMES B. “BIM” POND (1889-1961), head of New York’s Pond Lecture Bureau.

“I have your letter of April 2, with regard to the situation at Lawrence, Mass., on May 12.

In all of my experience, I have never found myself free while visiting a private home. The usual courtesies a gracious guest ought to show always take hours and hours of time, which, of course, I am not in position to spare. One cannot shut himself off from his hosts, and still be gracious. Therefore, I think it best that you decline the invitation of my auspice there, thanking him for his thoughtfulness, but explaining what I am up against; that I have a party of four, and that every available moment of my time is taken up with the countless things I have to do. Please express my appreciation to him, and tell him I look forward to seeing him.

Please don’t forget to mention that I never dine before the lecture…”

[A handwritten postscript reads:]

“Ask Lette [?] pardon for my writing direct to you”

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Admiral Richard E. Byrd

Byrd’s aviation career began as a Navy pilot, which led him to a command position in the Donald B. MacMillan Arctic expedition of 1924. After flying over the North Pole with Floyd Bennett in 1926, for which they both received the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor, Byrd decided to pursue his interest in polar exploration. Financial support from John D. Rockefeller and Edsel Ford allowed Byrd to set up a base camp on Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf in 1928. Regular flights were made to chart the continent’s geography and in 1929 Byrd and his companions became the first to fly over the South Pole. Byrd returned to the United States in 1930 and embarked on a nationwide lecture tour the following year, managed by Pond’s well-regarded lecture agency, founded by his father in 1873, and which managed the American tours of such luminaries as Mark Twain, Helen Keller, W. B. Yeats, Lord Dunsany, Winston Churchill, Rabindranath Tagore, Maurice Maeterlinck, John Galsworthy, John Masefield, Henry Morton Stanley, and Eddie Rickenbacker.

Byrd returned to Antarctica in 1933 to lead a more ambitious expedition, the purpose of which was to further map and claim territory near the pole. In 1934, he set up camp 120 miles from his Ross Ice Shelf base camp and lived alone for five months in a hut. His near fatal experiences were recorded in his memorable book Alone. Byrd continued to serve in the U.S. Navy, commanding operations in the Antarctic. He is said to have contributed more to geography than any other Antarctic explorer, (A History of Polar Expedition, Mountfield).

Bearing an ink date stamp. Folded, matted, and framed in elegantly carved dark wood. Not examined out of the frame.

TLS Setting Conditions for His Lecture Tour