EISENHOWER, Dwight (1890-1969). Autograph letter signed (''Ike'') to Mamie Doud Eisenhower, [Bushy Park], 29 June [1944].

EISENHOWER, Dwight (1890-1969). Autograph letter signed ("Ike") to Mamie Doud Eisenhower, [Bushy Park], 29 June [1944].

Two pages, 265 x 204mm. Housed in a custom clamshell case.

Writing in the weeks after the Normandy Landings Dwight Eisenhower writes of his son's graduation from West Point and mentions Kay Summersby. A fine letter from Eisenhower, written in the weeks following the successful Normandy landings. He opens with pride observing that the letter would be the first he had "ever written to you that is to be delivered by our son. He leaves tomorrow morning – and how I hate to see him go! He has been a great help to me, and I think he has enjoyed his visit." (John Eisenhower had graduated West Point on 6 June 1944, the day his father was overseeing Operation Overlord.) Several members of his staff were planning short leaves of duty stateside, and he advised his wife that "John will have some company." Most notably, "my Secretary Mrs. Summersby". Interestingly, Eisenhower adds "Mrs." in front of her name, although she was unmarried. She had been engaged to a U.S. Army officer, Lt. Col. Richard "Dick" Arnold, but he was killed in the North African Campaign of 1943. (Weather this was a subtle means of assuaging any suspicions his wife may have had remains a matter of conjecture.) Discussing his staff's travel plans, he adds that "Mrs. Summersby is going to try to find Mr. Arnold (mother of her late fiancé)." Rumors of an affair between Eisenhower and Summersby, abounded during and after he war, and n Summersby's own memoir, Past Forgetting: My Love Affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower (New York, 1976), after Ike's death, she frankly avowed an affair, although unconsummated.

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