Mitchell, William "Billy - [Autograph Letter Signed] While on Tour After His Court-Martial, Colonel William "Billy" Mitchell to James B. Pond, His Lecture Agent

1926. [2 pp]. 1 sheet. 8 3/8 x 10 1/2 inches. Dated May 16, 1926, about three months after Mitchell's resignation on Feb. 1, 1926, from the Army, while he was on tour in the midwest to both promote his book, Winged Defense, and lobby for naval airpower. Mitchell ((1879-1936) had resigned rather than accept the guilty verdict of his court-martial for bringing discredit upon the military service. James B. Pond, who was the largest lecture tour operator in the country, ran his tour. In this letter to Pond, Mitchell is writing from somewhere in the midwest on Eppley Hotels stationary concerning some problem with his payments and his being unable specify a date to speak in New York to Pond's own club, because of other commitments: "Your statement from the week ending with May 1st has just come in. The item of $11.25 .. is incorrectly stated in your note.. I cannot tell now about when I shall be able to talk to your club in New York as I have so much to do in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Virginia. I shall reach my place in Middleburg about the twenty-fifth [of May]." Signed with Mitchell's usual bold signature. Scarce. Autograph (as opposed to typed) letters by Mitchell are quite hard to find. Only noted by ABPC and Rare Book Rub, at Christies, in 1991. A very good copy.

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