American naval officer (1794–1858) who took a leading role in the establishment of international trade with the formerly insular nation of Japan. Excellent ALS signed “M. C. Perry,” three pages on two adjoining sheets, 8 x 9.75, July 11, 1839. Perry writes to Dr. Asher Parsons in Providence. In part: “My nephew Grant informs me that you have been so kind as to express a willingness to undertake a critique for publication, upon that part of [James Fenimore] Cooper’s Naval History that relates to the Battle of Lake Erie. It is desirable that a paper of this sort should appear in the next number of the New York Review, a periodical of considerable merit and distinction and I know of no one more capable than yourself of doing justice to the subject…. [I]f you can help along in this task of inducing Mr. [William] Burgess to assist in blowing up that scamp Cooper for endeavoring to uphold another of the same kidney, I pray you to do so. There is but one opinion prevailing in this community as to the motives that induced Cooper to attempt to write up Elliott and that is that he was influenced first by his political predilections for the figure head hero, and secondly that he thought that by the mere magic of his pen, he could rescue the character of his friend from the infamy of its present resting place.” Perry’s brother, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry (1716–1818), led the successful defense against the British naval forces during the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. Accompanied by two unused postage stamps commemorating Perry’s mission to Japan. Some marginal stains (mostly from tape; one just touching recipient’s name), intersecting mailing folds (vertical fold touching last name), and light wrinkling, otherwise fine condition. R&R COA.
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