This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/24/2025
TRUMAN, Harry S. (1884-1972). Memoirs: Year of Decisions / Years of Trial and Hope. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1955. 8vos. 2 volumes. 596; 594 pp. Publisher's full black cloth, front boards and spines stamped in silver, spines stamped in blue, pictorial front endleaves, publisher's unclipped (“$5.00") dust jackets (spine of volume 2 bumped at headcap, front hinge of volume 2 starting, ffep of volume 2 creased at upper corner; jackets toned, soiled, jackets with tears, chips). Very good. SPECIAL KANSAS CITY EDITION, INSCRIBED BY TRUMAN TO A FRIEND ON THE HALF-TITLE OF VOLUME 1: “With kindest regards to Harry Portman from Harry Truman 3/24/56." Portman (1896-1991) was a friend of Truman (and a fellow Kansas City resident), who served under Truman in the Argonne during WWI. After the war, Portman managed theatre chains in Europe (before the war, he managed vaudeville stages in the U. S., becoming friends with Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg). When antisemitism (Portman was Jewish) arose in Europe before WWII, Portman returned to the United States, founding a veterinarian pharmaceutical company, later becoming a prominent philanthropist (the Portman Charitable Trust still dispenses gifts today). As an aside, his brother, Benny, was a famous gangster in Kansas City, whose gangland murder is still unsolved. An excellent association.