The Happy Warrior, Alfred E. Smith: A Study of a Public Servant

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1928. First edition. Hardcover. First edition. Presentation copy signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt on the front free endpaper, inscribed "For my friend Judge [Matmin?] from Franklin D. Roosevelt Oct. 15 1928," weeks before his election as Governor of New York. Note on front free endpaper, "Character of the Happy Warrior" Wordsworth" in light pencil, and several minute annotations in same hand to text. vi, 40 pp. Bound in publisher's black cloth with orange paper labels. Very Good with some biopredation along edges of cloth, in a Near Fine unsophisticated dust jacket with subtle age-toning, light wear. Housed in a custom (truncated) quarter morocco slipcase. Provenance: from the collection of Jim Hier.

A signed copy of FDR's second book, a moving speech delivered at the Democratic National Convention of 1928, nominating Alfred E. Smith for the Presidency. Smith's Catholicism was quite a big deal at the time and due to that many Democrats had serious reservations about voting for him. He would lose the 1928 election in a landslide. The title comes from a line in William Wordsworth's poem "Character of the Happy Warrior," which describes the ideal qualities of a virtuous and honorable person. (Inventory #: 140946754)