McCoy, Samuel Duff; and Roosevelt, Hall. ODYSSEY OF AN AMERICAN FAMILY. An Account of the Roosevelts and Their Kin as Travelers, from 1613 to 1938. By Hall Roosevelt in collaboration with Samuel Duff McCoy. New York and London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1939. Octavo, 9-3/8 inches high by 6-1/8 inches wide. Hardcover, bound in black cloth titled in black on an orange label on the spine. The covers are slightly rubbed with some of the gilt faded from the spine. xv, [5] & 340 deckle-edged pages, with 2 frontispieces, 12 full page illustrations and a photograph. Very good.
First edition, inscribed by Hall Roosevelt to the wife of Ambassador Lincoln MacVeagh, "To the darling lady Peggy" with his signature beneath facsimile signatures of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt.
Hall Roosevelt (1891-1941) was an American engineer, banker and soldier, and the youngest brother Eleanor Roosevelt.
From the library of Lincoln MacVeagh and his wife Margaret (better known by the nickname "Peggy") with their "Arcades Ambo" bookplate on the front paste down. Lincoln MacVeagh (1890-1972), a Renaissance man, graduated from Harvard magna cum laude in 1913. He went on to study languages at the Sorbonne and became fluent in German, French, Spanish, Latin, Greek and Classical Greek. After World War I he became a director of the Henry Holt and Company publishing firm where he became friendly with the poet Robert Frost. In 1923 he left the firm and founded the Dial Press. His name appears on the imprint of many of their publications. In 1933 President Roosevelt appointed him Minister to Greece. He followed presentation of his credentials with a speech in Classical Greek. While in Greece he conducted excavations beneath the Acropolis and made archeological contributions to the National Museum in Athens. He left Greece in 1941 when the German army over ran the country. From there he was appointed the first US Minister to Iceland where he negotiated agreements for the construction of the Keflavik airfield. In late 1942 he became Minister to the Union of South Africa and coordinated American wartime agencies there. In 1943 he was sent to Cairo as Ambassador so that he could assist the governments in exile of Greece and Yugoslavia. He returned to Athens as Ambassador in 1944. MacVeagh gave secret testimony before Congress concerning the Balkans in 1947, testimony that was an important factor in the formation of the Truman Doctrine. In 1948 as Ambassador to Portugal MacVeagh was influential in admitting her into NATO. In 1952 President Truman named him Ambassador to Spain. President Truman wrote to him on March 9, 1948: "On the occasion of your appointment as Ambassador to Portugal, I would like to make some personal expression of appreciation for the high services you have already rendered your country. During the past fifteen critical years you have served with distinction as Chief of the United states Missions to Iceland, the Union of South Africa, Yugoslavia and Greece. In this last post especially - as Minister from 1933 to 1941 and as Ambassador since 1943 - your scholarly statesmanship and diplomatic judgment have been of the utmost value."
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