Check this out.
This is a handwritten letter, circa 1938 or 1939 from a young Ronald Reagan. A good friend of mine, who is a dealer of old books and frequently comes into possession of old manuscripts and autographs, gave this letter to me as a gift this past weekend at the NC GOP Convention.
The original three-page letter is missing the first page, thus his willingness to depart with it. Nonetheless, I love it. The letter is relatively easy to date, as Reagan references a movie he was shooting at the time. That movie came out in 1940. Written on Warner Brothers Studio stationary, the letter is written to someone close to Reagan as he is notifying them that he is using them as a credit reference (again). I personally believe that the letter is to his brother, as he references his father more than once and doesn’t specify “his” father, just “dad” as if “dad” is both his and the letter’s recipient’s father. Just a hunch. Apparently, the letter originally was sent with a photograph, as Reagan references a photo. He points out that the girl in the photo is his future wife. He would have been referencing his future first wife, actress Jane Wyman.
This is one of the coolest gifts I have ever been given.