Admiral (1900–1986) who oversaw the creation of America’s fleet of nuclear-powered naval vessels. War-dated TLS signed “H. G. Rickover,” three pages, 8 x 10.5, USS Will Rogers (SSBN 69) letterhead, At Sea, North Atlantic, February 13, 1967. Rickover writes a lengthy letter concerning nuclear submarine, The Will Rogers, and a detailed history of the American icon, to House of Representatives Democrat, Thomas E. Morgan, in part: “We have just successfully completed the first sea trials of our 41st Polaris nuclear submarine, the last of this type currently authorized by Congress. The Will Rogers was built by the Electric Boat Division of the General Dynamics Corporation, Groton, Connecticut. We also have in operation 27 attack-type nuclear submarines, making a total of 68. This ship is named for Will Rogers, (1879–1935), the Oklahoma cowboy who became one of American’s most popular folk humorists…The only son of a well-to-do family, he was offered every educational advantage but never got beyond the fourth grade…Though he joked about the tricks he used to avoid schooling, Will did not recommend them to others. ‘I have regretted all my life,’ he would say, ‘that I did not at least take a chance on the fifth grade’…He began modestly enough as a cowhand on ranches in Texas and Oklahoma. Wanting to see the world, he worked his way on cattle boats, roped mules in Argentina, and broke horses for the British army in South Africa…He joined Texas Jack’s Wild West Show as a rope artist and trick rider. Calling himself ‘The Cherokee Kid,’ he toured South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand for three years…When he joined the Ziegfeld Follies in 1915, he was an instantaneous success though, to hear him tell it, he ‘was the least known member of the entire aggregation,’ doing his ‘little specialty with a rope and telling jokes on national affairs’…He was a humorist, not merely a comedian…This is why he could progress from showmanship to authorship…He wrote for what he called ‘the big Honest Majority’ and felt himself a part of this majority—the people who believed in doing right, in tending to their business, and in letting their fellows alone…He traveled the length and breadth of this country, taking its pulse, watching its foibles and follies, joshing it gently, and sometimes telling it disagreeable homely truths…Charles Collins said of Will Rogers that he was ‘the average American, as that theoretical figure likes to imagine himself.’ His humor was in the tradition of Mark Twain, Artemus Ward, and Finley Peter Dunne’s ‘Mr. Dooley’…In his homely way Will made sense out of life as it is lived by ordinary men and women. And he made them laugh…The sense of loss so widely felt at his untimely death in an airplane accident showed that Will Rogers had done far more than entertain his public; he had touched their hearts.” In fine condition, with a rusty paperclip impression to the top left corner of the first page, and faint impressions to the two subsequent pages. A fine and unusual offering from the admiral, painting a beautiful picture of a true American, in every sense, from the depths of the Atlantic. RRAuction COA.
