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Gerald R. Ford
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Easton Press special leather-bound edition of President Ford’s autobiography, A Time to Heal
Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., 1913–2006. 38th President of the United States, 1974–1977. Special edition leather-bound copy of Ford’s autobiography, A Time to Heal, signed Gerald R. Ford.
This is a beautiful special leather-bound edition of A Time to Heal, which the Easton Press published in 1987. Ford has boldly signed the half title page in black felt-tip pen. The book comes with the original booklet containing a special introduction by Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, who was Secretary of State in the Ford Administration.
“Few Presidents,” Kissinger wrote, “have done as much for their country as Gerald Ford. But paradoxically he is such a thoroughly decent and likeable man, so quintessentially American in his steadiness and reliability, that the personal affection Americans feel for him tends to obscure his remarkable achievements.” Noting “the abyss toward which” American were headed when Ford assumed the presidency, Kissinger wrote that Ford “pulled the nation back so effortlessly that this historic accomplishment came to be taken for granted.”
The book is largely about Ford’s time in the White House as the only person to become President who was never elected either President or Vice President. But its accounts span his lifetime up to when he originally published the book in 1979. The dust jacket for the first edition said that, in this book, “Ford brings alive his political battles during his years in Congress, his lively run-ins with President Johnson, his service on the Warren Commission, his long hours as House Minority Leader. But in large measure, A Time to Heal deals with Ford’s Presidency. It is a dramatic, forthright and firsthand account of a decent man’s efforts to knit together a nation fragmented by Watergate and a White House staff often contentious and badly bruised by the legacy of the Nixon years.” It noted too, though, that the book reveals “light moments as well, of family fun, irreverence, pleasure and warmth. To those who know him, Gerald Ford is a robust, uninhibited personality whose vigor, generosity of spirit and love of his country are uniquely inspiring.”
This book is bound in red leather, with gilt-edged pages all around. The front and back covers bear a design of gold foil-stamped elephants—the symbol of the Republican Party. The spine has the elephant motif surrounding the title and Ford’s facsimile signature in gold. The book is like new, complete with the integrated gold ribbon bookmark. The binding is tight, the corners are square, and there is no wear on the spine or the edges of the front and back boards. There are a few tiny, hardly noticeable spots on the front cover that appear to be ink splatters. It takes careful hunting on the scan of the front cover below to see them. Were it not for those, the book would be in very fine condition. As it is, we must say that it technically is in fine condition, although it presents better than that. Ford’s dark black signature on the half title page is extra fine.
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