Signed first edition, first printing copy of Nixon’s memoirs,

RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, in publisher’s slipcase

Richard Milhous Nixon, 1913–1994.  37th President of the United States.  First edition, first printing copy of Nixon’s memoirs, boldly signed Richard Nixon.  In original publisher’s slipcase.

Four years after the Watergate scandal forced him to resign the presidency, President Nixon began another comeback through the publication of this book, RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, in 1978.  The book, Nixon writes, is based on not only on his public papers but also on some 20,000 pages of his “extensive handwritten notes” about his “ideas, conversations, activities, and speeches,” diaries that he dictated as Vice President and later as President, and, signficantly, the infamous Watergate tapes.  In the book, Nixon recounts his life, his political successes and failures, and the foreign and domestic events of his time, including those leading up to his resignation as President on August 9, 1974.

This is a stated first printing, and thus the first edition, of the book, published by Grosset & Dunlap.  It is the publisher’s deluxe cloth signed edition, not the common trade edition.  It is covered in dark blue buckram and embossed in gold printing on the cover and the spine.  The accompanying slipcase is covered in matching dark blue buckram.

In the 20 years between his presidency and his death, Nixon wrote nine books and reestablished himself as a respected statesman.  This book was the first.  After it came The Real War (1980); Leaders (1982); Real Peace: A Strategy for the West (1983); No More Vietnams (1987); 1999: Victory Without War (1988); In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat, and Renewal (1990); Seize the Moment: America’s Challenge in a One-Superpower World (1992); and Beyond Peace (1994). 

Nixon has signed this book in black on a page that the publisher bound between the blue front free endpaper and the half title page.  Facsimiles of Nixon’s handwritten initials, the encircled RN, are printed in black on the half title and title pages and in gold foil stamping on the cover and the spine.

This book is in near fine condition.  There boards show little wear, the binding of the book is tight, and the text block is square and clean.  Indeed, it does not appear as though the book has ever been read.  The gold foil stamping on the spine is a little worn, and the color of the spine itself is just slightly lighter than that of the rest of the book due to exposure to light on a shelf.  The slipcover is slightly bowed and has a few negligible scuffs.  Nixon’s signature in the book is bold.

Collectors of Nixonʼs signed books should not over look this one.  This is an extremely nice copy.