Memoirs. Year of Decisions. Years of Trial and Hope.

New York: Garden City, Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1955-1956.
2 volumes (150 x 200 mm). Blue morocco, smooth spine, gilt title, publisher’s slipcase.

First edition.

Deluxe edition reserved for President Truman: one of 101 copies bound in morocco, on behalf of the American President.

Presentation copy, inscribed :

“To the Right Honorable Sir Anthony Eden from Harry S. Truman Independence Dec. 31, 1955” (vol. 1)

and “To the Right Honorable Sir Anthony Eden with great respect from Harry S. Truman Independence July 14, 1956” (vol. 2).

The volumes also bear an inscription from Truman on both cases: “To the Right Honorable Sir Anthony Eden from Harry S. Truman”.

We apologize for the imperfect translation generated by Deepl for the purposes of the show.

Harry Truman became President on Roosevelt’s sudden death on April 12, 1945, and it was Anthony Eden who represented Great Britain at Roosevelt’s funeral. Both volumes were published, and donated, during Eden’s term as Prime Minister (April 1955 to January 1957). Truman had just completed his second term as President of the United States (April 12, 1945, then November 2, 1948 to January 20, 1953).

Anthony Eden was Churchill’s Foreign Secretary for most of the Second World War, from December 1940 to July 1945. He served Churchill loyally in this role, navigating the turbulence of the war and accepting Churchill’s preference to personally conduct the most important negotiations with Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and then Truman following him after Roosevelt’s death in 1945. He thus played an important role in Truman’s memoirs. He was deeply involved in all the diplomatic wrangling of the great powers during those years, which Truman devotes much of his narrative to tracing.

Truman became president on the sudden death of Roosevelt on 12 April 1945. It was Anthony Eden who represented Britain at Roosevelt’s funeral – Churchill had decided that he could not ‘lose interest in events in Europe’ on that date, and met Truman for the first time. Eden “quickly formed a positive opinion of the new President, describing him as ‘honest and friendly’ and appreciating his integrity and humility in his new position. In this assessment of one of the most remarkable modern American presidents, Eden was ahead of his time, telegraphing on the evening of the meeting to Churchill: ‘was struck by the President’s air of quiet confidence in himself’… “.

After their surprise defeat in the July 1945 general election, Eden served Churchill as deputy leader of the Conservative Party, then returned as foreign secretary in Churchill’s second government before succeeding him as prime minister and party leader in April 1955. The two volumes were thus published, and offered, during Eden’s term as Prime Minister (April 1955 to January 1957). Truman was in his second term as President of the United States (April 12, 1945, and November 2, 1948 to January 20, 1953).

In the months following the inscription of the second volume, Anthony Eden oversaw the expedition to and invasion of Egypt during the Suez Crisis, a debacle that led to his resignation, in part due to US opposition, under Dwight Eisenhower, Truman’s successor in January 1953. This crisis is often seen as marking the effective end of Britain’s empire and superpower status, a status in which Eden, like Churchill, deeply believed.

Eden’s thoughts on Truman’s Memoirs are unknown to us, but one section clearly stirred him, as he placed an exclamation mark in pencil in the margin of Vol. II (p. 64), at the statement that Truman and US Ambassador to China Patrick J. Hurley both thought “that America should be the champion of anti-imperialism in Asia”, and on p. 65 he also annotated the comment that Hurley’s peace deal in China “never bore fruit”.

The standard edition of the first edition of Truman’s Memoirs appeared in the usual hardback and dust jacket from the publisher Doubleday & Co, although a signed deluxe edition was planned, which would sell for $35. Truman objected, saying that he could not “engage in a program that would give the impression that I was selling autographs instead of a book” (letter to the editor of Doubleday, 1 July 1955, quoted in Ferrell, p. 319), a position unbecoming of a former President of the United States of America.

However, Truman was still attracted by the idea of a deluxe format and asked the publishers to provide him with 500 copies (ibid.) for his own use, which he would offer at his discretion, off the shelf. Two sets were thus composed: one in full blue leather binding (like this copy), the other in full cloth, also in slipcases.

The Truman Library records confirm that Truman was invoiced for 101 copies bound in morocco and 401 copies bound in cloth, at $10 and $2.80 each, for a total of $5,533.24, a large sum for the time. These invoices designate the copies as Truman’s ‘personal edition’, which Truman gave numerous copies to dignitaries and relatives over the years, favouring the leather-bound copies to the highest dignitaries and closest friends.

The copy dedicated to F.D. Roosevelt’s widow, Eleanor, sold for $41,125 at Sotheby’s on 15 February 2001.
Until his death in 1972, Truman still owned and dedicated copies, a significant number of which were subsequently donated back to the White House Presidential Library and the Truman Library.