Memoirs--Year of Decisions and Years of Trial and Hope
New York: Doubleday, 1955. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo; 2 volumes (596pp, 594pp); black buckram w author's signature stamped in silver on front covers, titling in silver and blue on spines on blue label; first editions first printings; topstain blue; dustjackets, fore edge untrimmed; colored endpapers; both volumes are "special Kansas City Limited Editions."
Signed by the author in black ink on half title of Volume I as follows: “With kindest regards to Harry Portman from Harry Truman 3/24/56.”
Condition: Slight bit of shelfwear to copies; pages slightly toned; titling and covers bright. Dustjackets with sunning to spine, rub marks and several small closed tears.
The recipient, Harry Portman (1896-1991) was a close Truman friend and fellow Kansas City, MO, resident who served as a Sgt. Major under Captain Truman in the Argonne offensive during the First World War. After the war, Portman spent many years overseas and made a fortune as Manager of all Lowe's and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer theatre chains in Europe. He had started out in Kansas City managing Vaudeville stages and rose to include such entertainment luminaries as Louis B. Mayor and Irving Thalberg as Friends. He gave Maurice Chevalier his first screen test and received numerous medals from European leaders. Jewish, Portman decided to leave Europe with the rise of political unrest. He returned to the States and was president of a veterinary pharmaceutical firm he founded, working in that field from 1950 through 1975. He donated money to numerous philanthropic causes; the Harry Portman Charitable Trust remains active with gifts and grants still being made.
(Of note: In 1944, Portman’s brother Benny, a notorious gangster gambler in Kansas City, was found murdered-shot in the head, a crime that remains unsolved).
. Item #101
Price: $487.21