529201
Maxwell D. Taylor
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Maxwell Davenport Taylor, 1901-1987. United States Army General; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1962-1964. Typed Letter Signed, octavo, one page, on stationery of the Office of the Superintendent, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, September 12, 1945.
Ten days after the formal surrender of Japan to end World War II in the Pacific, Taylor thanks Rosemary E. Wright, an Army employee, for congratulations on his appointment as superintendent of the United States Military Academy and sends her a signed photograph (not present). In full: “You were very good indeed to take the trouble to write me with respect to my assignment to West Point. I am sorry not to have seen you while I was in the War Department but they had me very much on the jump during my brief stay there. / As you request, I am sending you a very poor photograph if you are willing to add it to your collection. I am afraid it will be a poor exhibit among your really ‘famous sons'.”
This letter has outstanding provenance. It comes from a large collection of signed photographs and letters from Army generals and others originally assembled by Wright (1890-1969), who spent some 35 years working for the Army, ultimately as Chief of the Army General Staff Assignment Section, before she retired in November 1953. Miss Wright handled all of the administrative work relating to officers assigned to the General Staff. She knew all of them—well enough to call Dwight D. Eisenhower “Ike,” George S. Patton, Jr., “Georgie,” and Jonathan Wainwright “Skinny." She wrote of her years with the Army in The Generals Call Me “Mom,” which appeared in the March 15, 1952, edition of Collier's magazine.
A 1922 graduate of West Point, Taylor rose to the four-star rank of General. He parachuted into Normandy with his 101st Airborne Division troops, the first allied general to land in France on D-Day. After the war, he spent four years as the superintendent at West Point before commanding allied troops in Berlin, Germany, and then being sent to Korea. He served as Army Chief of Staff under President Eisenhower from 1955-1959, when he retired over a disagreement with the Administration over what he viewed as too heavy reliance on nuclear weapons at the expense of conventional forces. President Kennedy appointed Taylor to a commission to investigate the Bay of Pigs disaster, and subsequently he recalled him to active duty and appointed him as his principal military advisor, then as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The letter has one horizontal mailing fold, which does not affect the signature, and faint stains from previous mounting in an album. There is a note in another hand on the back. Overall the letter is in fine condition.
Unframed.
This item has been sold.
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