Item #1605 Typed Letter Signed. FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT.
Typed Letter Signed
Item Video

Typed Letter Signed

“The doctors tell me I am getting along splendidly and I hope to be back in the game before so very long.”

POIGNANT SIGNED LETTER FROM ROOSEVELT ON HIS RESOLVE NOT TO LET POLIO DEFEAT HIM.

Written just two months after being struck by polio at his summer home at Campbello Island, Roosevelt writes on October 5, 1921, to Henry Waring Chadeayne (Orange County lawyer and politician):

My dear Mr. Chadeayne:

I appreciate very much the action of the Democratic County Committee of Orange County in directing you to convey their sympathy to me. I also appreciate exceedingly the personal good wishes which you added on your own account.

The doctors tell me I am getting along splendidly and I hope to be back in the game before so very long.

Very sincerely yours,

[signed] Franklin D. Roosevelt


By October 5, 1921, the outlook for Roosevelt looked bleak. He was already suffering from paralysis with little hope for improvement, yet from the beginning Roosevelt fought with extraordinary resolve to overcome any limitations caused by his disease. And get “back in the game” he did, becoming governor of New York in 1929 and (of course), U.S. President from 1933 to 1945.

Though written on Roosevelt’s Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland’s personal letterhead, it is almost certain that the letter was typed either at Presbyterian Hospital or else dictated by him and brought to him for signing, for on October 5, 1921, Roosevelt was still in the hospital (he was released on October 28th).

Note: This is one of the earliest Roosevelt letters referencing his disease that has ever been on the market.

New York: October 5, 1921. Quarto, one page. Expected folds. Fine condition with original envelope (postmarked October 6, 1921). An inspiring letter from one of the United States’s greatest figures.

Price: $9,500 .