Detzer sends an inscribed and signed sheet of note paper to future Congressman Seymour Halpern, then a young autograph collector.
Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Karl W. Detzer [1891-1987] began his career as a reporter and photographer for a Fort Wayne newspaper. After serving in World War I, he went to Chicago where he wrote advertising copy. He left this job to become a full-time author, writing for various pulp magazines, submitting screenplays to Hollywood studios, and eventually working as a roving editor for Reader's Digest.
The Queens, New York Republican Congressman Seymour Halpern (1913-1997) started his political career as a campaign aide to New York's powerful mayor Fiorella La Guardia and first served in New York's State Senate for 14 years before seeking a seat in the U.S. Congress. In Albany Halpern sponsored 279 bills that became law, including measures on schools, housing, civil rights, nutrition and mental health. A Liberal, he was something of an anomaly as the lone Republican representative from New York City, and generally garnered support from Labor Unions and endorsement from the Liberal Party. Yet he never even considered switching parties as he considered membership in the Republican Party a family tradition and commitment. While he found ample time for his private pursuits, including painting and collecting autographs, he took his legislative duties very seriously. Of these, he was proudest of his co-sponsorship of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and of the original 1965 Medicare legislation.
Scarce. Very good .
Keywords: LITERATURE; AMERICAN AUTHOR; A SHEET OF NOTE PAPER INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY JOURNALIST, AUTHOR AND EDITOR KARL DETZER; SIGNATURE; AUTOGRAPH; PULP MAGAZINE STORIES; SCREENPLAYS; READER'S DIGEST; CONGRESSMAN SEYMOUR HALPERN.