The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes: The First Thousand Days 1933-1936 with Two typed notes SIGNED by Harold Ickes

New York: Simon & Schuster. Very Good in Good dust jacket. 1954. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Autograph; xi, (1), 738 pages; This volume covers the first President Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration. Ickes (nickname "Honest Harold") was Roosevelt's trusted Secretary of the Interior (1933-46) and an ardent reformer, who also headed the Public Works Administration (1933-39). Owner's signature on ffep - "C. S. Pike" [Charles Sumner Pike]. Tipped in on front endpapers are two typed signed notes from Harold Ickes on Secretary of the Interior letterhead addressed to Charles Sumner Pike -- one dated May 6, 1943 and the other dated September 1, 1943. Also laid-in is a typed letter from Frank N. Isbey and J.W. Gilberton Treasury Department War Savings Staff letterhead thanking Mr. Pike for his tremendous efforts in War Bond Sales and praising the community of Charlevoix, Michigan for its generosity. The community encompassed the Belvedere Club ( originally the Charlevoix Resort Association) and its neighboring Chicago Club which were summer residences for several of the region's weathiest families. Contents clean and secure in original binding of black cloth spine over blue boards. Dustjacket is badly chipped at spine ends and corners and split along front fold at spine. Charles S. Pike and Harold Ickes had both been students in the first graduating class of the University of Chicago. While Pike clearly had been a star athlete at the time, who also played on an early football team coached by the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg. Harold Ickes also played baseball in his youth. The Chicago Public Library has a photograph "Gentleman baseball players of the Englewood High School team from April of 1892." There is an interesting feature of this photograph which may relate to Ickes' persistent and long term advocacy of equal rights for African Americans. Ickes is standing on the left; standing on the right is an African American teammate. Ickes, before joining FDR's cabinet had been director of the Chicago NAACP. The Ickes T.l.s. [May 6, 1943] mentions Arthur [Sears] Henning, long-time Washingon correspondent for the Chicago Tribune -- a Republican-leaning newspaper, for which Harold Ickes had worked in his youth. A little over five years later, the "Tribune" published an early edition, November 4, 1948, the headline of which would live forever in American political and journalistic history. The banner headline: "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN" appeared over the lead story to that effect written by Arthur Henning. This volume is from the collection of Charles Sumner Pike's son-in-law -- Judge Gerhard Alden Gesell (1910 – 1993) who began his career as a staff trial lawyer and later as adviser to Chairman William O. Douglas at the new Securities and Exchange Commission from 1935 to 1941. Gesell then entered private practice with Covington & Burling in Washington, where he specialized in antitrust and other corporate cases. While engaged in private practice, Gesell continued to serve the public sector. In 1945 and 1946, he served as Chief Assistant Counsel for the Democrats during the Pearl Harbor hearings. In 1962 he was a appointed Chairman of the President Kennedy's Committee on Equal Opportunity in the Armed Forces from 1962 to 1964. In 1967 Gesell was appointed to the United States District Court for DC by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He presided over several memorable cases. For example, in 1969 Judge Gesell declared that the District of Columbia's abortion statute was unconstitutional. In 1971, Judge Gesell was involved in the litigation surrounding the publication of The Pentagon Papers. He ruled that The Washington Post could continue to publish the series of articles about the Vietnam War based on the leaked secret study despite the Government's attempts to halt publication. During the Watergate investigations and litigation, Judge Gesell ruled that the dismissal of Archibald Cox as special prosecutor in the "Saturday night massacre" in October 1973 had been illegal. In the 1974 trial of John D. Ehrlichman, Judge Gesell sentenced him to 20 months to five years in prison for his role in the Watergate break-in. In 1989, a jury found Colonel North guilty of three of the 12 crimes he was charged with: obstructing Congress, destroying documents and receiving an illegal gratuity. Believing North had been carrying out orders from authorities above him, Gesell did not to send him to prison, but fined North $150,000, placed him on probation for two years, and assigned him community service. ; Signed by Author .