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Letter to Major John Slocum "Atomic Bomb" Joint Task Force One Vintage
$ 21.12
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Description
1946 Love Letter from Mrs. Eileen (Gillespie-former fiance to John Astor) to her husbandMajor John Jermain Slocum of the Joint Task Force USS Appalachian responsible for dropping/testing
the Atomic Bombs on Bikini Atoll Marshall Islands
Back story:
Eileen Gillespie educated at Miss Hewitt's Classes on the Upper East Side of Manhattan
Learned to be precise in vocabulary and diction
"If you have to use your hands when you speak, you're not communicating well enough in words"
She was once engaged to marry John Jacob Astor VI
one of the richest men in the world however she broke off the engagement claiming he was immature
as he smashed expensive champagne flutes at his hotel during their party
She later married John J. Slocum in 1940 & in her latter years became the
Grand Doyenne (Dame) of Newport Rhode Island's "Old Guard" & Republican party stalwart
Considered one of the elite of the most elite
Following the War Mr. Slocum amassed a fortune in finances & gathered
what is considered the world's foremost James Joyce collection,
which was acquired by Yale and now is in its Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Highlights of the six page letter dated 1946 on Newport's Hotel Viking Stationery (hotel to the rich)
was sent about the same time as the nuclear tests
Two pages are on hotel stationery one is not
She talks of a family member with a drinking problem her mother opposed to her driving especially John's Cadillac
It appears they are staying at the hotel at 0.00 a week while their home is being built or possibly remodeled
Her family or sisters are buying the homes next door aka Millionaires Row
She says Robert Goulet purchased one of the homes too for 0,000.00
The letter moves to talk of the children their son Jerry was no longer ill & her love for her husband
A "rich,'" history addressed to her husband a member of the atomic bomb testing crew in a wonderful letter