Beschreibung:

TREMENDOUS ARCHIVE OF CORRESPONDENCE, PHOTOS, AND EPHEMERA COVERING NEARLY 50 YEARS. Over 100 Autograph Letters Signed and 35 Typed Letters Signed (“Ronald Reagan,” “Ron” and “Dutch”), approx. 200 pp total, 4to, 8vo, and 12mo, various places including Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Washington, DC, 1940s-1990s, to Zelda Multz, president of the Ronald Reagan International Fan Club, most letters with original transmittal envelopes, many autograph (some typed letters are secretarial are autopen). Together with 380 vintage candid snapshots of Reagan and family, many unpublished; over 300 vintage publicity stills of Ronald Reagan; over 40 signed photographs of Reagan (some secretarial), Christmas Cards from Reagan and family, some signed and inscribed. Present also are 20 letters from Nancy Reagan, 28 letters from Nelle Reagan (Reagan’s mother), and 3 letters from Jane Wyman. Collection also includes 40 years of ephemera (clippings, magazines, promotional and political flyers, etc.) following Reagan’s career from actor to SAG president to California Governor to President. Condition on correspondence is good throughout; photos with some oxidation; ephemera with chipping and wear. Should be viewed. Zelda Multz joined the Ronald Reagan fan club in 1944, and began a correspondence with the actor that would last for nearly 50 years. Always a great communicator, Reagan writes candidly about his life, discussing his marriage, the adoption of his son Michael (which he wishes the press would not publicize), his divorce, and his work (including a particularly humiliating conversation with Jack Warner, who told him he wasn’t a “draw”). By the 1950s and 1960s, his letters deal more with his political awakening, discussing Communism in Hollywood, his gradual conversion to the Republican Party, and his own political ambitions. From January 5, 1965: “Last night we listened to the State of the Union address and I had a cold feeling of fear. The promises listened so good and of course they represent goals that had been in all our dreams. It comes down to the method of achieving those goals, and underneath all the rosy promise was the sound of more and more government and less and less freedom.” He keeps Multz abreast of his plans to run for Governor, and once elected, answers her questions about the major crises of his administration, including the campus riots at Berkeley. Once Reagan begins his campaign for the Presidency and is elected, the correspondence is less frequent, but picks up with warmth and frequency in his early retirement years. See illustration.