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103 NIXON, Richard. Six Crises. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1962 Inscribed to the first female state senate president First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to his fellow Republican politician and friend “To Consuelo Bailey with best wishes from Dick Nixon”. The recipient Consuelo Northrop Bailey (1899–1976) was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives in 1951, serving as speaker of the same from 1953 to 1955, the first woman to hold a role as state senate president. She served as 66th lieutenant governor of Vermont from 1955 to 1957, as vice chair of the Republican National Committee from 1953 to 1957, and as secretary of the Republican National Committee from 1965–1973. In a speech at Burlington Vermont, 17 October 1970, Nixon called her his “good friend”, and stated that she “has always advised me about Vermont”. Nixon’s first book, Six Crises presents six significant moments in his political career: the Alger Hiss Case; his Checkers speech in 1952; President Eisenhower’s heart attack in 1955; the attack on his motorcade in Caracas in 1958; the Kitchen Debate against Khrushchev in 1959; and his 1960 presidential campaign. It was perhaps Nixon’s loss to Kennedy in 1960 which motivated this book, as Kennedy’s 1956 Profiles in Courage was widely cited as having developed Kennedy’s reputation and aided his election win. Nixon wrote to Eisenhower that writing the book “was the hardest work I have ever done from the standpoint of concentration and discipline required” (cited in Frank, p. 235). In a typical Nixon scheme, he ordered his aides to buy 1,000 copies of the book to make sure that it hit the bestseller lists. Octavo. Original beige cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt on blue ground. With supplied dust jacket. A fine copy, in very good jacket, a little rubbed with minor peripheral chips and short closed tears, price intact. ¶ Jeffrey Frank, Ike and Dick, 2013. £500 [153417]
104 NIXON, Richard. Leaders. New York: Warner Books, 1982 from one leader to another First edition, first printing, a superb presentation copy from the US president to a British prime minister, inscribed by the author on the half-title, “To Prime Minister Harold Wilson with warm regards, from Richard Nixon 1982”. Wilson was prime minister of the United Kingdom at both the start and end of Nixon’s presidency, holding office over two terms from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976; Nixon was in office from 1969 to 1974. Despite their different politics, Nixon and Wilson’s relationship was cordial, and the pair met several times. The “special relationship” prospered in the period, in marked distinction to the tenure of Nixon’s other contemporary prime minister Edward Heath, whose focus was on alignment with Europe, and whose relationship with Nixon and the US was much more strained. Wilson placed the maintenance of Atlantic relations at the forefront of British overseas policy, and his return to office in 1974 saw a renewal in the relationship. Aside from their professional relationship, Nixon and Wilson appear to have had deep respect for each other. Nixon recalled in his Memoirs a dinner with Wilson, where Nixon made kind remarks about the British Ambassador to the US, who had been publicly critical of Nixon in the past. Wilson passed Nixon a note “That was one of the kindest and most generous acts I have known in a quarter of a century in politics. Just proves my point. You can’t guarantee being born a lord. It is possible – you’ve shown it – to be born a gentleman”. Following Nixon’s disgrace after Watergate, on a 1978 visit to the United Kingdom, Wilson was happy to meet with Nixon, who was at that time shunned both by the James Callaghan government and by Edward Heath. Leaders offers a detailed examination of the relationship between Nixon and various foreign leaders whom he met throughout his lifetime. The book met with critical praise, aiding the rehabilitation of his political image following his resignation of the presidency in 1974.
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